Obama HHS Mandate Could Sterilize Teen Girls Without Parental Consent
CNS News broke the story late last month: At a recent press conference held to discuss the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., “Obamacare”), a reporter asked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a critical question:
Photo/Florida Tenth Amendment Center
“One of the services that health care plans have to offer free of charge [under the HHS mandate] are sterilizations… do you agree with the federal government mandating—”
At this point, Congresswoman Pelosi cut the reporter off and responded, “You know what, I told you before, let’s go to church and talk about our religion. Right here we’re talking about public policy as it affects women…” SEE FULL VIDEO BELOW
HHS said nothing about restricting the provision of these free “preventive services” to women who were 18 or older, or 21 or older, or even 15 or older. The regulation simply said “all women with reproductive capacity.”
Obviously there’s some clarification needed for many citizens.
The Obamacare provision went into effect August 1, 2012.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finalized the regulation earlier this year, reported Fox News.
It says that all health care plans in the United States–except those provided by actual houses of worship organized under the section of the Internal Revenue Code reserved for churches per se–must provide coverage, without cost-sharing, for sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives to “all women with reproductive capacity.”
In practical terms, “all women with reproductive capacity” means girls as young as about 12. That, according to the National Institutes of Health, is when girls usually start menstruating.
In developing the regulation to define these “additional preventive services,” HHS commissioned a federally funded committee at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to recommend what they should to be.
In July 2011, this committee issued a report that said: “The committee recommends for consideration as a preventive service for women: the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for women with reproductive capacity.”
After much review many people are concerned because all these children have to do is sign a consent form—something which Edwin Black, bestselling author of “War Against the Weak,” points out was routinely faked during the dark days of American eugenics and forced sterilization.
“I find it abhorrent,” says Black, “that a 15-year-old girl who’s not old enough to consent to sexual activity, who’s not old enough to consent to buying a beer, who’s not old enough to drive herself to the hospital could possibly be considered old enough and mature enough to give informed consent for her own sterilization…”
