Nebraska Defeats Nurse’s Challenge to Midwifery Restrictions

A board-certified nurse-midwife failed to revive her constitutional challenge to a Nebraska law limiting the practice of midwifery in the state.

A provision requiring midwives to have practice agreements with doctors and perform their services only under a doctor’s supervision in a medical facility didn’t violate Heather Swanson’s alleged 14th Amendment due process right to provide home-birth services, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said Friday.

Swanson said the measure was intended to further doctors’ economic interests by limiting the availability of medical services provided by other licensed professionals. But state restrictions on licensed professionals are presumed ...