5 - Changing Roles of Doctors and Nurses: Hospital Snitches and Police Informants

Summary

A key link in the numerous arrests and prosecutions of pregnant women throughout the United States is their medical providers, whose roles as undercover informants and modern day “snitches” belie their sacred fiduciary obligations. From their once revered roles as fiduciaries, duty-bound with the tasks of protecting and promoting the interests of their female patients, some medical providers now police their pregnant patients’ conduct and even serve as quasi law enforcers for the state. For my European colleagues, physicians entreating law enforcement against their pregnant patients was simply unimaginable. Once upon a time, it might have been unthinkable in the United States, too. However, that period is long gone. Indeed, even race can no longer spare white women some of the indignities suffered by Black women. In their politicized roles as deputized interpreters of the law, physicians and nurses may misinterpret the law or, even worse, prioritize the exercise of their legal judgment over that of their medical judgment. In this context, physicians and nurses are called upon to wear two hats: those of health care provider and law enforcer.