Pemberton v. Tallahassee Memorial Regional Center, 66 F. Supp. 2d 1247 (N.D. Fla. 1999), is a case in the United States regarding reproductive rights. In particular, the case explored the limits of a woman's right to choose her medical treatment in light of fetal rights at the end of pregnancy.

Pemberton had a previous c-section with a vertical incision, and with her second child attempted to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). However, since she could not find any doctor willing to assist her in this endeavor, she labored at home, with a midwife.^[1]

When a doctor she had approached about a related issue at the Tallahassee Memorial Regional Center found out, he and the hospital sued to force her to get a c-section. The court held that the rights of the fetus at or near birth outweighed the rights of Pemberton to determine her own medical care.^[2][3] She was physically forced to go to the hospital, where a c-section was performed.^[1]

Her suit against the hospital was dismissed.^[1] The court held that a cesarean section at the end of a full-term pregnancy was here deemed to be medically necessary by doctors to avoid a substantial risk that the fetus would die during delivery due to uterine rupture. The risk of uterine rupture was estimated at 4–6% according to the hospital's doctors and 2% according to Pemberton's doctors. Furthermore, the court held that a state's interest in preserving the life of an unborn child outweighed the mother's constitutional interest of bodily integrity.^[4] The court held that Roe v. Wade was not applicable, because bearing an unwanted child is a greater intrusion on the mother's constitutional interests than undergoing a cesarean section to deliver a child that the mother affirmatively desires to deliver. The court further distinguished In re A.C. by stating that it left open the possibility that a non-consenting patient's interest would yield to a more compelling countervailing interest in an "extremely rare and truly exceptional case." The court then held this case to be such.^[1][5]

In March 2009, a Leon County Circuit Court ordered Samantha Burton, then 25 weeks pregnant with her third child, to remain in Tallahassee Memorial Hospital on bed rest against her will.^[6][7] Three days after the court order was issued, Burton had an emergency C-section, resulting in a stillbirth.^[8] The next year, the Florida District Court of Appeals ruled that the court cannot impose unwanted treatment on a pregnant woman "in the best interests of the fetus" without providing evidence of fetal viability.^[9]

• Text of Pemberton v. Tallahassee Memorial Regional Center, 66 F. Supp. 2d 1247 (N.D. Fla. 1999) is available from: Google Scholar Justia Leagle
• Rights Duties, and the Body, by Rosamund Scott
• The Rest of the Story
• Laura Pemberton: Speaking on Her Experience of a Court-ordered Cesarian Surgery