Yes, there is a Double
Standard in Medicine
Women of any age (including minors) have the right to an abortion because they have a privacy right that protects their control of their bodies ... but a 17 year old girl in Connecticut doesn't have the right to pursue an alternative to state-mandated chemotherapy in treating her cancer. Double standard? You bet!
Since 1973, when Roe v. Wade became the “constitutional”
law of the land, women have been deemed to have absolute control of their bodies. This includes girls as young as 13 or 14 – if
they choose to have an abortion, they not only have that absolute right, but
their parents don’t even have the right to know about this procedure. Every attempt to strip or limit this right to
an abortion for minor children has been blocked by the courts.
I think this is pure insanity. First, because there is no “right to privacy” in the Constitution – that was made up by the court. Second, even if there is a right to privacy, in all other regards, minors are under parental control until they achieve their majority – only in abortion matters do these minors have rights which trump those of the parents. Finally, I also thing abortion is immoral and wrong – but that’s really beside the point here.
However, the issue here is a medical double
standard. Young girls have the “right”
to kill a not-yet-born baby inside their womb but, as the state of Connecticut
now asserts, those same young girls do not have the right to eschew medical
intervention (in this case, chemotherapy) that is forced upon them against their
will. In this case, the young girl is 17
– old enough to drive, old enough to give consent to engage in sexual
activities, old enough to have an abortion no matter what anybody else
says. Yet she doesn’t have the right to
refuse chemotherapy.
Hypocrisy?
You bet.
She (and her parents), who all very much want her to live, and elected to pursue an alternative therapy. However, the nanny state, which cares not at all about 12 year olds killing their unborn babies, have stepped in to force this young girl to have chemo.
I bring this up because the same liberals who
champion abortion-on-demand, regardless of age, also champion the state forcing
this girl to undergo the horrors of chemotherapy against her will.
What’s next? It can only be egregious.
