Melissa Roland as Judge Fuchs said in her last court appearance in Utah in April 2004 had fallen through the cracks since her birth.
Melissa was born to a mentally retarded woman and was taken away and put up for adoption to a family in Pennsylvania, her adopted family divorced and she was put in a mental institution at twelve years old. She stayed until she was impregnated with twins at fourteen. The state took her children and sent her on her way. She was able to go to Job Corp, met a boy who she married. They had two children. She had not had role model as a mother and lost both children to the state. When we first met Melissa in Utah She had been charged with murder.
Melissa Rowland was a woman pregnant with twins when she came to Utah to find a good family for her babies. She had been brought here by an adoption agency that brings young women here to Utah so they can adopt out special needs children for which they receive a good amount of money. This has become a big business here in Utah. She was given an apartment and small allowance by the adoption agency. She did not have a job. She did not have health insurance. She had a history of drug use. She had a history of mental illness. She had two prior cesareans. Each of these things alone and certainly all of these things together put her and her babies at risk for a poor outcome. Melissa's boy friend at the time abandoned her as did the adoption agency.
Melissa was concerned enough about her babies to check on them several times, during the days before her delivery. She did not have insurance and she was sent from hospital to hospital. Melissa was scared. She delayed having a cesarean. One of the babies died. Melissa did now what she knew all along she would have to; she consented to surgery. Melissa was scared. The day after having major medical surgery, the delivery of her twins, one still born. Melissa checked herself out of the hospital having left her baby girl to be adopted by a family she had arranged for, and went home to her apartment she knew she would have to leave soon. The police came and arrested her there. She was put in isolation which means she was in a cement room with no mattress, one blanket, no windows and no medication for her pain, lights on 24 hours a day.
First the District Attorney’s charges were child endangerment. Those were dropped and the new charge announced: First Degree Felony Murder. This woman was charged with murder for delaying a medical procedure, which would not have guaranteed the life of her baby. Melissa spent three months in jail while awaiting trial. The pressure was so great on the District Attorney that he offered her a plea bargain, even though her Attorney advised against it, she took the offer. Her charges went back to Child Endangerment and she was held again until her sentencing. At her sentencing she was given 0 to 5 years, suspended and put on probation for 18 months and told to go get drug treatment in Indiana. They were glad she was leaving the state and they wouldn't have to take care of her problems. The coalition put her on the bus that night, with clothing, some money, toiletries, and a blanket knowing that she would never arrive there because she intended to go to Ohio where her boy friend was in jail and his parents had told her she may be able to get on the Oprah show and they would fight for her baby. We received a call from Kansas City where at the bus stop she had been robbed of her money her suitcase and all of her papers. We put her up in a hotel and asked the hotel to see that she got on a bus the next day.
Again she had fallen between the cracks and received no help. What is to become of her, this mentally ill and retarded woman with no health insurance, no birth control help, no home, no money, no family. She has learned to some degree how to use the system but will end up in jail either here in Utah or somewhere else. Her fate is in the hands of a system that is not taking care of its less fortunate citizens.
A unique coalition was formed in behalf of this poor wayfaring woman in grief. In standing together for Melissa, this coalition stood together for all women. The coalition consisted of Justice, Economic Dignity & Independence (JEDI) for Women, Utah National Organization of Women, Utah CODE PINK, NAMI - The National Organization of the Mentally ill, & UPNET Utah Progressive Network and ICAN the international Cesarean Association Network.
