Exciting news from Illinois: We will no longer be the dumping ground of the Midwest for underage girls seeking abortions. As of today, the 1995 Parental Notification Act will begin to be enforced.
Parental Notification Comes to Illinois
Obviously it leaves something to be desired—what with the judicial bypass, allowing grandparents to sign off on the abortion, and the fact that it simply requires notification of her parents (rather than their consent)—but it’s sure better than a 15 year old girl getting an abortion no questions asked like it was in the past. Now 35 states have parental notification or consent laws—let’s push for 50!
Text of Obama Health Care Bill Available
We continue to hear more bad news every day about the Obama’s health care proposal.
As John told you in the July 31 hotline, pro-life amendments—which would prevent pro-lifers from paying for abortions with their taxes—were not included in the text of the House version of the bill. Instead we have a so-called “common ground” amendment placed on there by a representative with a 100% pro-abortion voting record. I hope no one will be fooled into thinking their tax dollars won’t be paying for abortion—because with Obamacare, they certainly will be.
Now add to that the end of life “health care counseling” that you’ll get under this new healthcare system, and pro-lifers have reason to be concerned about those at the end of life as well as those at the beginning.
The 1018 page bill is available for you to read online [PDF] in your spare time. How many of our representatives do we believe have actually read the full text of the bill? And of those, how many of them understand what they read?
Obamacare Mandates End Of Life Counseling
Anyhow, there is a section in there mandating a “consultation” every five years for those who are on Medicare. Counseling can be “more frequent,” though, “if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual, including diagnosis of a chronic, progressive, life-limiting disease, a life-threatening or terminal diagnosis or life-threatening injury, or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility… or a hospice program.” (p. 429)
One of the items on this mandatory counseling is asking you to think about end of life issues—including encouraging you to sign a living will. Pro-lifers oppose living wills because they discourage treatments and often cause people to inadvertently eliminate treatment options they really did want.
More frightening than that is the fact that food and water will now be defined as “treatment” according to the bill—the exact phrase is “the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.” (p. 430).
Never mind that every human being needs this to survive—it’s “treatment” if you’re elderly and need in IV.
The cynic in me pictures the conversation like this:
“Mr. Jones, we’ve just found out that you have skin cancer. This condition is ‘life-threatening.’ Shall we talk about your options? When you get sicker, would you like us to provide the following treatments to you: Food? Water? Oxygen? No, you don’t want to be a burden—you don’t want any of that, do you? I didn’t think so.”
While we’re not there yet, redefining basic human needs as “treatment” is a very bad idea. That is how they killed Terri Schiavo, after all.
While on face these aspects may not be all that problematic, the application of them will be deadly. The federal government should not determine what benefits it’s worthwhile for you to receive and whether it’s really worth spending money on someone who is going to die soon anyway. Beware.
If you haven’t written to or called your representatives yet, I hope you’ll do so. They’re on recess now and should be available to meet with you in your local office. Visit www.senate.gov and www.house.gov to find the contact information for those who are supposed to be representing you in Congress.
