Black Women Are Being Forced Into C-Sections—With The Court’s Backing

For many Black women, OB-GYN care has a long history of exploitation and racial bias. J. Marion Sims, the so-called “Father of Gynecology,” experimented on enslaved Black women, and today, and reports have showed us hospitals are more likely to steer Black mothers toward cesarean sections than white mothers.

This fight for medical autonomy is escalating as two Black women said they were pressured to have C-sections, violating their right to make their own medical decisions. In both cases, courts, according to a report, decided that the perceived health of their unborn children outweighed their right to refuse surgery. A new ProPublica investigation is bringing their stories into the light.

In 2024, Cherise Doyley had been in labor for 12 hours at University of Florida Health in Jacksonville when a nurse brought in a tablet. Instantly, Doyley was in a Zoom court with a judge, several lawyers and hospital staff. ProPublica reported that the hospital set up this emergency virtual hearing to force Doyley, a professional birthing doula, to have a C-section she had clearly refused. Doyley, who understood the risk of uterine rupture to be less than 2 percent, said she would only agree to surgery if a true emergency arose.

THREAD: Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside.

On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors.

She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section. pic.twitter.com/4IwgiDLP1C

— ProPublica (@propublica) March 21, 2026

Doyley had no representation and was the only Black person on the call. “I have 20 white people against me, and because I am informed and I am making an informed decision, they are trying to take my rights away from me by force,” she said. After she asked for a Black medical provider, the judge said, “I don’t find that race really has much to do with this,” the outlet reported. When Doyley later asked the judge for help to see her newborn in the NICU, he told her there was nothing he could do.

Doyley’s experience is not unique. ProPublica also reported the case of Brianna Bennett, who went to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital in 2023. After three tough C-sections, Bennett wanted a vaginal birth. But when her labor lasted longer than expected, a virtual court hearing was held from her hospital bed. When her baby’s heart rate went up during the hearing, the judge ordered the surgery.

It wasn’t the first time that the hospital had gone to court to force a patient into surgery she did not want; the same thing had happened there in 1999 and again in 2009.

C-sections can be performed as planned or emergency surgeries, but ProPublica pointed out that when labor is just moving slowly, as it was for both women, it is less clear if surgery is truly needed.

These cases occur within a broader legal framework where states determine the rights of pregnant women. Today, 29 states have laws that can override advance directives, sometimes even if the fetus is not viable, according to Pregnancy Justice. This is true in Florida, where Doyley and Bennett gave birth. ProPublica also reported that Florida lawmakers are considering a bill to treat embryos and fetuses as legal persons in wrongful death lawsuits, which advocates say could lead to more forced interventions.

Because decisions often hinge on personal judgment, such as how slow labor is assessed, bias can affect the outcome. This helps explain why Black women are more likely to have C-sections even when their medical situations mirror those of white patients.

For Doyley and Bennett, the consequences of unwanted C-sections were more than statistical. Doyley said she will never attend another birth as a doula. “It’s too traumatizing for me,” she told ProPublica. Bennett said she cried every day after her surgery. “I’m supposed to be thankful,” she told the outlet. “And I’m not even happy.”