*(Not quite what you think...)
I have watched with concern over the last several months as story after story after story report on new and twisted ways politicians, usually Republicans, have come up with to deter women from obtaining legal abortions. No matter the procedure is, and has been for some time in this country, a legal one. States from Virginia to Ohio, from North Carolina to Texas, have all passed new measures which make obtaining this legal procedure more difficult than it had been. The North Carolina folks were especially creative, sliding the amendments into a motorcycle safety bill of all things. Twenty three States now require an ultrasound before an abortion can be performed, regardless if either the patient or Physician or both do not want it performed. Clearly, the very thing so many Conservatives warned us about during the health care reform that Obamacare would do, is now being brazenly done by, in many cases, the same voices who warned us about the dangers of government interfering between a patient and their Doctor.
Three things I present for your consideration:
#1) Paper from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) dated October 18, 2012 titled, "Legislative Interference with the Patient–Physician Relationship" by a group of five Medical professional societies, (the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Surgeons).
Here's the money paragraph from the paper:
Increasingly in recent years, legislators in the United States have been overstepping the proper limits of their role in the health care of Americans to dictate the nature and content of patients' interactions with their physicians. Some recent laws and proposed legislation inappropriately infringe on clinical practice and patient–physician relationships, crossing traditional boundaries and intruding into the realm of medical professionalism. We, the executive staff leadership of five professional societies that represent the majority of U.S. physicians providing clinical care — the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Surgeons — find this trend alarming and believe that legislators should abide by principles that put patients' best interests first. Critical to achieving this goal is respect for the importance of scientific evidence, patient autonomy, and the patient–physician relationship.
Examples of inappropriate legislative interference with this relationship are proliferating, as lawmakers increasingly intrude into the realm of medical practice, often to satisfy political agendas without regard to established, evidence-based guidelines for care.
#2) Open letter from American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to Texas Legislators, dated July 9th, 2013. In response to the ongoing efforts to pass oppressive abortion rights laws in Texas.The main thrust of the letter is summed up here:
That’s why we’re speaking to the false and misleading underlying assumptions of this and other legislation like it: These bills are as much about interfering with the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with her physician as they are about restricting women’s access to abortion. The fact is that these bills will not help protect the health of any woman in Texas. Instead, these bills will harm women’s health in very clear ways. We’re setting the record straight, loudly and unequivocally, with these simple messages to all politicians: Get Out of Our Exam Rooms...
#3) Women speaking out via video message. This may be the most powerful group of messengers yet. A group of esteemed women, joining forces to decry the intrusion of big government into the sacred territory known as the patient doctor relationship.
Take it away ladies:
Well said, ladies, well said...
Sources:
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2012/01/05/endofyear.html
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-04-06-1Aabortion06_ST_N.htm
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/07/anti_abortion_legislation_in_the_states_will_bills_in_texas_north_carolina.html
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/01/02/1383661/virginia-governor-trap-laws/
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/06/ohio-anti-abortion-bill/66442/
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/10/north_carolina_republicans_sneak_antiabortion_provisions_into_motorcycle_safety_bill/
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/texas-senate-abortion-bill-94102.html
http://kff.org/womens-health-policy/state-indicator/ultrasound-requirements/
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb1209858
http://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/News_Room/News_Releases/2013/Open_Letter_to_Texas_Legislators
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