Melissa Ann Rowland is still speaking out about her case.
Salt Lake County prosecutors originally charged Rowland, who used drugs while pregnant, with murder after allegedly declining a Caesarean section and later delivering a stillborn child.
She pleaded guilty in April to two third-degree felony counts of child endangerment, was given probation and a suspended prison sentence and was ordered to complete a drug treatment program in whatever state she chose to live.
Rowland said she planned to quietly get on with her life, but appeared on Greta Van Susteren's TV show "On the Record" Wednesday discussing her case. "I don't think there should be laws regulating this," Rowland told the Deseret Morning News in a phone interview earlier Wednesday. "They should not be able to charge people with murder for having a stillborn. It goes against human dignity."
Rowland, 28, was charged with first-degree felony murder after one of her twins was stillborn on Jan. 13. The other twin survived and has been adopted.
One local doctor urged Rowland to have an emergency C-section because he believed the babies were at risk, but she refused, court documents state. Rowland has repeatedly denied this.
Rowland admitted in a plea bargain that she used cocaine while pregnant, and she and the live baby tested positive for the drug just after the birth.
Her case sparked national headlines and debate.
She left Salt Lake City after her sentencing apparently heading for an inpatient rehab center in Indianapolis. But she said she has gotten back with her boyfriend, Roger Brown, the father of the twins, and the couple is living in an undisclosed Ohio town with Brown's relatives.
"The immediate future is peace and quiet and rehab," she said. She plans to enter an outpatient drug treatment program in Ohio.
A spokesman for the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office had no comment on whether Rowland might be violating her 18 month unsupervised probation by not immediately checking into rehab. Third District Judge Dennis Fuchs, who sentenced her, is forbidden to discuss pending cases.
While interviewed in jail and on the phone, Rowland sounded extremely agitated and said she was quite depressed. Things were different Wednesday: Rowland sounded relaxed and upbeat, even laughing occasionally. "I'm happy. I'm healthy. I'm healing," she said.
Rowland said Utah prosecutors were "out of line" for charging her with murder and she was "not impressed" with local hospitals. "They treated me like a criminal."
But Rowland has good words for the female advocacy groups who rallied around her and for her defense attorneys.
As for the media, it's a mixed bag, but overall she appreciates the press. She does seem a little surprised at how famous she has become. "You can look up my name on the Internet and there are all these things."
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com