A New Jersey trial level court recently determined that the father of an unborn child has no right to be in the delivery room. The case, Plotnick v. DeLuccia, involved a couple that met in late 2012. The mother discovered that she was pregnant in February 2013. Shortly after, the father proposed and she accepted. She ended the engagement in the summer of 2013. After the break-up, the father wanted continued involvement in the pregnancy and to be present for the birth. The court found that the mother’s constitutional privacy rights outweighed the father’s pre-birth interests. The court found that
it would be an undue burden on the mother to require her to notify the father?when she is in labor or require his presence during labor. It would invade her sphere of privacy?and provide unwarranted strain on the mother.
