When Tabita Bricci overruled doctors who said her son would die or be brain-damaged without a C-section delivery, officials took her to the Supreme Court and lost. A year later, mother and baby are doing fine.
"My son is healthy," Bricci's husband, Mircea "Mike" Bricci, said of his son, Callian, whose birthday is Dec. 29. "He's just beautiful."The Briccis' doctors had told them before Callian's birth that the fetus was not getting enough oxygen and should be delivered early by Caesarian section.
Bricci said nothing in his Pentecostal religion prohibits such surgery, but he and his wife believe it wrong to terminate a pregnancy before term.
Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, appointed by a court to represent the fetus, pursued the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Murphy says emotions ran high throughout. Lawyers for serial killer John Wayne Gacy "did not receive as much hate mail as we did" from abortion rights groups, he said.
The high court refused to hear the case, and a state appeals court affirmed rulings that a mother cannot be forced to undergo surgery for the sake of her fetus.
Three weeks after the ruling, Callian was born.
"It turned out best of all possible worlds," Murphy said.
"When I hear him say `Daddy,' it's a feeling of relief. It's a feeling of joy," Bricci said.
The family moved to Oregon in August to be with relatives and live in a smaller city.
Bricci, 24, is out of work and his 23-year-old wife is expecting again. He says he doesn't have health insurance and his wife hasn't been to a doctor in months. But he believes God will provide for his family.