The court-appointed guardian for an endangered 37-week-old fetus looked to the U.S. Supreme Court after Illinois' highest court refused to order the mother to undergo a Caesarean section.
"I just hope and pray that the physicians' prognosis is wrong," Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy said Thursday.Doctors at St. Joseph Hospital say the fetus, which is 11/2 weeks shy of full term, isn't getting enough oxygen and could die or suffer brain damage.
But the 22-year-old mother, an unidentified Pentecostal Christian, has refused a C-section, saying God will deliver a healthy baby to her.
On Thursday, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving intact an appeals court ruling in the woman's favor.
"It shocks the conscience to think of strapping down a competent person and forcing her under the scalpel of a surgeon," said Colleen Connell of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which represents the mother.
Murphy said he will go to the U.S. Supreme Court.