Form API: Hiding form option on node forces node to be unpublished I'm using Drupal 7

I'm creating a node through a node add form. The settings are such that it should by default be published. I'm trying to hide some of the options from the user, but when I         

hide($form['options']);


for some reason the node does is no longer published by default. I've tried tracing out the value of that portion of the form

drupal_set_message('Options'.'&lt;pre&gt;'.   print_r($form['options'], TRUE) .'&lt;/pre&gt;');


and I get the same values when the field is visible as when it is hidden. Seems like perhaps something is fishy?
When you hide the form['options'] array you essentially set it to 0.  Which means the published field will always be 0 (unpublished).  Try hiding the fields with CSS or JS if you need it to be conditional.