The sadism of the anti-choice crusaders

There are far too many poster children for all the evil done to America by a few religious fanatics, made possible by a much larger number of MAGAs. One of those could be 13-year-old Aleah from Idaho. Her story would drive anyone but the most passionate bastard as crazy as hell. Unfortunately, America has no shortage of assholes with passionate hearts.

These are the people who remain indifferent to a ten-year-old rape victim who was banned of getting an abortion in her home state of Ohio. And had to go to Indiana to meet her medical needs. Or a 13-year-old rape victim in Mississippi, who had to give birth to her rapist’s child because the family could not afford to travel to Illinois, the closest state offering treatment for her coercive condition.

Let’s not forget that sex is among the age of majority is always rape, with some legal exceptions close in age (aka Romeo and Juliet). But despite this, there are still people who blame the victim.

Aleah’s story

Note: The details come from a Washington Post report, CLICK HERE – the paywall should disappear. But the comment is mine.

The piece begins:

The patient, 36 weeks pregnant, had mild but frequent contractions. She had come to the emergency room in this small lake town because she was new to the area and didn’t have a doctor. In most cases, doctor Caitlin Gustafson would have started with a pelvic exam to determine if labor had begun. This time she called the hospital’s lawyers.

Expectant mother Aleah was only 13 years old. And under a new Idaho law that requires parental consent for health care for almost all minors, Gustafson could be charged with treating her because the girl was brought in by her great aunt.

That a girl cannot be treated immediately because a doctor fears legal consequences for doing what is best for the patient is insane. But the madness is also in the small details.

WaPo does not mention – probably because Americans accept this as normal – that the first thing Aleah was probably asked upon arrival was: “What insurance do you have?” A question that most Europeans would find crazy.

Regardless, the hospital would have treated her even without insurance — except for the state’s parental consent law. It’s absurd. I am a parent. Anyway, let me know what’s going on. But if my child may need emergency treatment, give it. Don’t wait for my permission.

In Aleah’s case, this parental consent was not easy. As WaPo further explains:

“What followed was more than two frantic hours trying to contact Aleah’s mother, who lived in a car, and her grandmother, who was the teen’s legal guardian. The grandmother eventually gave verbal consent for the exam – from prison in Boise, where she was incarcerated for drug abuse.

Fortunately, it turned out that Aleah’s contractions were a false alarm. But when she returned for a check-up a few days later, the detained grandmother had to give permission again.

Finally, Anna Karren, Aleah’s great aunt, who had originally brought her in, received power of attorney from the grandmother. And Aleah received the medical care she needed until she gave birth.

Note: Aleah lived with an aunt three hours south until the woman was threatened with eviction. That’s when Karren, a construction worker at a ski resort, received a panicked phone call. She had not had contact with Aleah’s grandmother, her sister, for a while.

The POA that had given Karren the authority to make decisions for Aleah also allowed her to consent to the new baby’s treatment. In an Orwellian irony, however, that permission was not necessary. As a mother, even though Aleah could not make medical decisions for herself, she could make them for her child.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, the father is another teenager – who is in juvie.

The big picture

Make no mistake, there are a lot of people in Idaho – inclusive doctors, therapists, youth advocates, school officials and some law enforcement agencies – who have called the law ‘misguided and dangerous’.

But religiously motivated, sanctimonious legislators are impervious to humanity, empathy and common sense. And those are the insensitive bastards who are pushing these sociopathic laws

The paper continues:

Critics say the law — which also gives parents access to minors’ medical records, doing away with the confidentiality that providers and teen advocates call crucial — ignores the reality that parents are not always present or reliable. Three months after its implementation, they claim it is hindering adolescents’ access to counseling, limiting evidence collection in sexual assault cases and causing schools to seek parental permission to treat abrasions with ice packs and Band-Aids.

I am not saying that parents should be excluded from any say in the medical care of their teenage children. But whatever happened to granting some leeway to school authorities and medical staff?

There are some things teens need to “throw off” an adult they trust, as some topics are difficult to talk about with parents. Imagine the stress of being an LGBTQ child with homophobic parents. They don’t have to be religious fundamentalists. It’s bad enough when daddy tells gay/lesbian jokes. Or mother criticizes one child for being a ‘tomboy’, or forces another child to play sports when he would rather sew.

Children can be reluctant to talk to the most open-minded parents – who may not be as open-minded as they think. “Don’t worry. It’s just a phase.”

Not all Republicans are thoughtless. STate Rep. Marco Erickson (R), a youth organizer, said in an email to WaPo:

“It has been a terrible bill with terrible consequences for youth, especially those who have been victims of their parents’ abuse. I have seen young people not want to participate in therapy for fear that their abuser would have access to what they were talking about. I tried to warn my fellow legislators … but I was a Republican voice among a group of people who don’t understand how things work on the ground.”

But Erickson’s concern and compassion only went so far. This SOB still voted (reluctantly) in favor of the bill.

The bigger picture

Do laws that give parents absolute rights over their children lead to the best outcome for every child? Hardly. Some parents are not good at parenting. And children raised by those parents – or one of those parents, or a grandparent, or an aunt, or who have been in multiple foster homes, separated from their six brothers and sisters (see Aleah), have a steeper climb to good health of their own. to become parents.

Conservatives are always pounding the table to claim that a father and mother raising children together is the ideal. But how are children supposed to know that – or that children raised by same-sex parents have positive outcomes – if these same people continue to pass laws that prohibit educated adults from educating the children of uninformed parents?

Comprehensive sex education should be mandatory in schools. And that should highlight the enormous burden of single-parent households and teenage pregnancies. Relationship therapy must go hand in hand with free contraception. You don’t have to sleep with someone to prove your love for them. But if you do want to sleep with them, here’s how to do it safely – with minimal long-term consequences in the form of a child or an STD.

Lawmakers must pass laws that benefit every citizen, regardless of age. No laws to further a personal religious agenda. Pregnant women trying to give birth die because doctors are too afraid to treat complications resulting from pregnancy. And girls who shouldn’t be pregnant are because lawmakers sacrifice their common sense to religious fundamentalism.

They can call it “parental rights.” But these wicked people care no more for their parents than for children. Or children having children.

Conservatives will never cure this cycle of futility. Liberals have a chance. But only if they win elections – federal and state.