Medical Misogynoir: The Cherise Doyley Story

·29 min·2 clips

A Black woman in her 12th hour of labor faces a judge on Zoom because she declined a C-section.

The episode begins with host Madigan introducing the story of Therese Stoiley, a Black doula in Jacksonville, Florida, who was in her 12th hour of labor at University of Florida Health when doctors became concerned about uterine rupture. Therese, aware of the risks from her training, repeatedly declined a C-section due to previous difficult recoveries. The hospital then initiated an emergency court hearing via Zoom, where Judge Michael Khalil presided over Therese while she was in bed hooked to IVs. Therese was not provided a lawyer or patient advocate during the hearing. She argued that she had the right to choose her care and emphasized her need to survive for her three other children. The judge muted her at points during the proceedings. Experts like Lois Shepherd and Kimberly Mutcherson are cited discussing how pregnant patients in the U.S. can have their medical decisions overridden, unlike other competent patients. The hearing lasted about three hours, and Therese requested a Black healthcare provider, which was dismissed by others on the call. The judge ultimately ruled the hospital could perform a C-section without her consent, which occurred after the baby's heart rate dropped. Madigan then expands the discussion to historical context, referencing Dr. Marion Sims' experiments on enslaved Black women and Fannie Lou Hamer's involuntary sterilization in the 1960s. She covers the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s-90s where Black pregnant women were disproportionately targeted and the term 'crack baby' was popularized. Madigan notes that Black women are 2.6 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women today. She explains how fetal personhood laws, rooted in the 1980s, enable court-ordered medical procedures. The episode concludes with Madigan hoping Therese pursues legal action and emphasizing the importance of sharing such stories to drive systemic change.

As heard by us

A Zoom hearing during labor turns a birth plan into a stark test of medical and legal power.

A Zoom court hearing held while a pregnant patient is deep into contractions gives the episode its force: this is medical care treated as a fight over who gets to decide.

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Why you'd press play

You want to understand how Therese Stoiley, in labor with her fourth child, ended up facing a judge on Zoom.

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