E. Flagler Flagler and associates outline several dilemmas in pregnancy and an approach to working out what is right in such instances. I have no disagreement with this statement.
Personal autonomy needs to be vigorously protected.
However, we have not been given clear insight into the right thing to do when a medical intervention can benefit both the fetus and the mother, as in the case of a mother addicted to or abusing drugs. A mother may not be able make a decision because of mental incompetence. In these situations, medical intervention can benefit all, even if the woman's autonomy is temporarily removed. This is not coercion. To leave women in these desperate situations without therapeutic intervention is, in effect, abandonment.