by Dr Ada Fisher
I am sick and tired of women being played as political ping pong balls while my colleagues in Obstetrics and Gynecology who make money off of our care are quiet and other women sit silently on the sidelines while our reproductive lives are being dictated without our say. Birth control is not the government’s business whether from the Obama Administration's intrusive policies to force payment by insurance companies to cover this free of charge or by too many conservatives with sexual hang-ups for others which their own lives show reflect their lies. In its 1965 Griswold vs. Connecticut decision 381 U.S. 479, the Supreme Court granted a right of marital privacy in reference to constraception. In that ruling Justice William O. Douglas (appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt) in speaking for the 7:2 majority noted that the right to privacy was to be found in the “penumbras” (something existing to a lesser degree in the shadow of other constitutional dictates) and “emanations” (to be found within) of other constitutional protections.
I am also deeply disturbed by the trend to subject pregnant women to non-routine testing and other limitations as they desire to seek adequate health care services. This includes a requirement of mental health screening for women in Nebraska but not the father’s of that pregnancy, ultrasound testing for non-medical purposes on vulnerable fetuses without concern for the potential long term consequences of such and other legislation proposed only for those seeking to terminate a pregnancy without allowing any provisions to protect the life and safety of the mother. Such intrusions into the practice of medicine by those untrained to appreciate the rapidity in which problems can develop, lives for both mother and fetus can be easily compromised and interventions which must be undertaken to both save lives and preserve fertility are wrong and allow legislators to practice medicine without a license or a degree.
Lastly is the deceptive Personhood Legislation seeking to define life as beginning at conception with a demand that all such conceptions be supported and carried to completion. This quick step is a way to get around a Pro-Life confrontation. The lack of understanding of pregnancies shows that most don’t appreciate that over 50% of all conceptions are spontaneously aborted with examinations revealing genetic problems, birth defects incompatible with life, incompetent cervixes and other issues for which medicine has no cure. Will folks then curse G-d for allowing such ends for this life or let G-d do His work and we be as supportive of our fellow human beings as possible?
As a family physician by training who has delivered 500 babies, I believe that all life is precious and I have supported pro-life issues. That is my bias. But my reality is that abortions should only be considered within the medical decision making process which will then also protect the life of the mother. As one who hopefully doesn’t have to personally confront the issue of a pregnancy, for my granddaughter and our daughters' sake, the pregnancies of women must quit being used as political fodder for those with a point of view which may rail against the recommendations of the medical literature, standard medical practices and others who would take medical decision making out of that appropriate realm.
Dr. Ada M. Fisher is a PHYSICIAN, author, gifted public speaker, licensed teacher for secondary education in mathematics and science, previously elected school board member, AUTHOR and IS THE nc rEPUBLICAN nATIONAL cOMMITTEEWOMAN. Contact her at P. O. Box 777; Salisbury, NC 28145; DrFisher@DrAdaMFisher.COM Pending book Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions Solutions Good For What Ails Us, book I from Amazone.com
publishers.
