senior scribes
The views expressed on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of County News Online
text

Obamacare and the Culture of Death
By Kate Burch

A recently-developed, highly accurate, blood test that screens for the presence of Down syndrome in the fetus is becoming more widely used.  It has great potential for good, in that it can help women avoid more invasive and dangerous procedures such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling when there are risk factors for Down syndrome present.  It is also a good thing for parents of a child that will be born with disabilities to have foreknowledge, as that is useful for their planning.  Some advocates are concerned that a positive result may lead some couples to terminate a pregnancy, even if the initial results are not confirmed by further testing, and without becoming educated about how individuals with Down syndrome are living longer, happier, healthier, and more productive lives these days. There is public debate and political activity related to this issue.  The Ohio General Assembly is considering legislation, HB 135, passed by the House, that specifically outlaws terminating a pregnancy in response to a diagnosis of Down syndrome.  North Dakota now has a broader law forbidding abortion for the purpose of eliminating a child with genetic defects.  Such law is not really enforceable, as abortion clinics do not question a woman who seeks an abortion about her reason for wanting it.  However, it does send a message.

My big concern about the issue of prenatal testing in the Obamacare world, is that it will be made mandatory, and that fetal test results that reveal likelihood of “defects” will result in a recommendation that the pregnancy be terminated and even to refusal of coverage for continued prenatal and maternity care. 

“Can’t happen!”  you say?  Well, look at the contraception mandate, and the fact that businesses are being shut down and pharmacists, for example, are losing their jobs for following the dictates of conscience and refusing to play along and dispense abortifacients.  A most egregious example, to be sure, is the government persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor (they are not even the Big Sisters, as Charles Krauthammer so trenchantly pointed out) for their principled refusal to cover contraception for employees of their society. 

Big-government cheerleaders and apologists on the Left will pooh-pooh such concerns, as they have the concerns about rationing of health care services for seniors under this regime.  The Left tars as “crazies” people who warn that older citizens will be told, as Obama said in his first presidential campaign, to “just take a pill” rather than get that cardiac pacemaker or treatment for their cancer.  A little digging, and a little analytical thought quickly reveals how the Obama health care law is undeniably crafted to limit what insurance companies can do to keep up with medical inflation; what individuals can do to use their own money to care for themselves and their families; and what health care professionals can do to save lives. It already happens in England and Canada that the elderly are denied care because a faceless bureaucrat is in charge of the payment, and it is coming here, unless we can achieve a change in leadership.  Make no mistake.  Obamacare seeks to bring about the desired world of those who favor the rule of faceless, powerless masses by a privileged elite; those who have no respect for an individual’s life or an individual’s rights of freedom and self-determination; those who think they are so smart that they have the right to herd us like sheep and pen us up in ticky-tacky city apartments bordered by bicycle paths (with no air conditioning, to boot!); those who would call an unborn child a “blob” and condone his or her murder so that society might not be inconvenienced; those who would say that the elderly must be abandoned to die so that health care dollars will be available for the young and the beautiful.




 
senior scribes
senior scribes

County News Online

is a Fundraiser for the Senior Scribes Scholarship Committee. All net profits go into a fund for Darke County Senior Scholarships
contact
Copyright © 2011 and design by cigs.kometweb.com