HARRISBURG — An unlicensed midwife who assists Amish and Mennonite families with home births won a legal challenge Friday to a state decision that stopped her from practicing.

The Commonwealth Court's 5-2 ruling also overturned an $11,000 civil fine that the State Board of Medicine imposed on midwife Diane Goslin. The board can appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Commonwealth Court said the board erroneously concluded that by practicing midwifery, Goslin was also illegally practicing medicine and surgery without a license.

The board also denied Goslin due process by charging her under a 1985 state law that established licensing requirements for nurse-midwives, but disciplining her under a 1929 law that requires other types of midwives to hold state-issued certificates, the court found.