Rowland says state is making example of her

A woman accused of murder in the death of her stillborn baby says she is being used to make a political statement.

Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, spoke in a jailhouse phone interview Monday with the Deseret Morning News. Earlier Monday, she pleaded not guilty before 3rd District Judge Sandra Peuler during a brief arraignment hearing via closed-circuit television from the Salt Lake County Jail. Rowland said she will be unable to hire an attorney, so Peuler appointed public defender Mike Sikora to handle her case. Sikora is also representing Rowland in her fight against a related child-endangerment charge.

Rowland was charged last week with murder after prosecutors said she refused a doctor-recommended Caesarean section. One of the twins she was carrying was born dead. The other twin has since been adopted.

In a telephone call from the Salt Lake County Jail, Rowland said she agreed with the position taken by the National Organization for Women: She has become the victim of politics.

"This to me is tantamount to Roe v. Wade," Rowland said Monday, referring to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that constitutionally guaranteed a woman's right to abortion. "I did not refuse a C-section, regardless of what they say. As far as I'm concerned, this goes back to, 'It's your body, it's your right to do what you want with it.' I just don't know why they have to pick little me to make an example out of."

On Friday, NOW president Kim Gandy told the Deseret Morning News she suspected prosecutors saw in Rowland an unsympathetic character and wondered whether she would have been charged were she a "soccer mom." Gandy said beyond any political statement the case also carries a powerful legal statement.

"Once you've established in the law the right to second-guess a person's decision about their medical care, then it's been established," Gandy said.

But Kent Morgan, assistant Salt Lake County district attorney, said such speculation is no more than "alluding to political aspirations that don't exist in this office."

"We have no statement to make with respect to the criticism I've heard, such as whether or not (the charge represents a position) either for or against abortion rights or pro-choice rights or anything like that," he said. "That was never a consideration, still isn't.

"With respect to a mother's choice to choose treatment, that's never been a consideration because, of course, you have a right to choose your own treatment. This is about the treatment that caused the death of a child, not the treatment that the mother chose for herself."