By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
Newly-minted State Senator Dr. Larry Stutts (R-Sheffield) a OB/GYN wants to keep the government out of the exam room, especially when it comes to the field of women’s health; an area in which he would seem to be qualified.
Many would agree with him that most medical decisions should be between a woman and her doctor, without fear of the government meddling. But, we also want to keep our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives out of the morgue.
In proposing SB289, Stutts failed to inform his fellow Republican Senators of his intimate knowledge of the bill he hopes to over turn. SB289 would eliminate the key components of “Rose’s Law” which was passed in 1999, after Rose Church died under Stutts’ care.
Church, a 36-year-old registered nurse from Haleyville gave birth to a healthy, baby girl on December 1, 1998. After 36 hours, she was released from the hospital, only to return 36 hours later due to sessile bleeding. She was given four pints of blood. She was again discharged only to die approximately 36 hours later of a heart attack, according to court and a 1999 report by the Tuscaloosa News. Her autopsy revealed that Church had placental tissue still inside her womb, 11 days after she delivered her daughter Logan Rose.
Stutts was her doctor and named in the wrongful death suit filed by her husband, Gene Church.
The suit states, among other things, that Rose Church was released from the hospital despite the fact that she “was suffering from placental accreta and continued to display persistent tachycardia.”
Her husband told the Tuscaloosa News in 1999, that if the legislation had been law in 1998, his wife would have stayed in the hospital for 48 hours and the blood tests would have shown she was having problems before she was discharged.
Rose’s Law gives women a legal right to remain in the hospital for 48 hours after a normal live birth and 96 hours if the birth presents a complication.
Stutts wants to do away with this law named after his patient but he kept his relationship with the Church family a secret from his Senate colleagues.
In the Senate, as in all relationships between equals, trust is the bond of cohesion. Stutts broke that bond when he failed to fully disclose the death of Rose Church and his plan to repeal of her namesake law.
Stutts, by his own actions, has become a pariah. In an ocean of sharks, he cannot hope to survive. Having betrayed six of his Senate colleagues, he had squandered the single most valuable asset a member can possess.
The Senate is a collegial body, a small group of powerful men and women who rely on each other to do good for their constituents.
Not only has Stutts betrayed his fellow senators, he has betrayed the people of his district by rendering them voiceless in the legislatures most powerful body.
Now, he will never be able to fully represent his Senate district after this grave omissions of facts.
Rose’s Law was passed to protect other women from the fate of one of his patients, yet, he used Obamacare as a cover for his past deeds.
Stutts sold his bill to Senators comparing it to Obamacare. The President may be the State Republican’s punching bag, but in this instance, it was not a punching bag, but the body bag that contained the remains of Rose Church that was behind this act.
Stutts is arrogant and careless and now we know he is evil.
How can he continue to serve in the Senate when we now see that he is only there to profit himself?
