Britney Spears revealed in court that she’s been forced to have an ‘IUD’ implanted to stop her from having a child. Here’s what a top family lawyer had to say about the ‘drastic measure.’
Britney Spears‘s strict conservatorship agreement restricts her from being able to have another child. “I have an IUD in my body right now that won’t let me have a baby and my conservators won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out,” the 39-year-old pop star said June 23, during her first-ever public testimony in court. The singer has been in a conservatorship, which remains under the control of her father Jamie Spears, 68, since 2008.
And, as shocking as the forced contraception is, a top lawyer explained why it’s actually legal under the rules of Britney’s conservatorship. Michael Stutman, founding partner at Stuntman, Stutman Lichtenstein & Felder told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY, “Assuming that the conservator is empowered to make medical decisions for her, it sure seems like it. Which is why this is such a drastic remedy for someone.
The top New York lawyer added, “A convicted murderer has more ability to control his or her bodily functions than Britney Spears. What I found most compelling, in so far as the example of just how awful, a conservatorship is, was the business about controlling her reproductive rights,” he said. “Fundamental rights. I mean, the right to determine to have children has been declared to be a fundamental right.”
“A conservatorship tramples on all kinds of fundamental rights,” the celebrity lawyer continued. “When she said that she was being stopped from having a child, that moved me, just as a human being, not so much as a lawyer. I mean it’s not something I would have thought of all by myself. But, you know, if I had a conservatorship and the conservator, decided that I had to have a vasectomy. I mean, admittedly, that’s more permanent perhaps theoretically than an IUD, but, wow.”
Speaking about the legality of restricting reproductive rights Mr. Stutman recalled a Supreme Court ruling that declared forced sterilization of criminals unconstitutional. “It made me think of an old Supreme Court case, where Oklahoma had a statute, where people who were convicted of a particular crime more than once were not only imprisoned, but also sterilized. And the Supreme Court declared that to be unconstitutional.”
“It’s really an important thing, particularly for a woman who’s capacity to bear children, has a shelf life,” he continued. “Her opportunities are passing. And, for whatever reason, you know, the children that she had with Kevin Federline, she was deprived of the opportunity to really take those kids from start to finish, so to speak. And personally, I know how that feels.”
The Oops!…I Did It Again singer shares Jayden James, 14, and Sean Preston, 15, with her ex-husband Kevin, 43. They divorced in 2007 and the following year she was put under a conservatorship following a very public breakdown.
Britney has been dating fitness trainer and model Sam Asghari, 27, for the past five years. The pair met on the set of her music video “Slumber Party” in Oct. 2016.