Reproductive Rights Soon Trump Parental Ones
As I type this, my desk is literally covered with piles of permission and medical forms.
In less than a week, we leave for youth camp. In less than a month, we depart for our mission trip to St. Louis. In six weeks, we take our children to kids camp.
All of those trips include lengthy medical forms that must be filled out. On the forms, allergies, medicines and health conditions have to be listed. Insurance cards and numbers must be included. Signatures from parents are required. In the past, some of those forms even needed to be notarized.
To take students to camp or mission trip requires a fairly detailed, finely-worded process that must be signed off by parents or the student cannot attend or participate. (I once misplaced a form and was told that student could only sit in the dorm room until the form was found and faxed.)
Yet, thanks to recent court rulings and now the Obama administration backing off of their appeal of those rulings, those same students who must have duplicate copies of signed medical forms for mission trips can get the morning-after pill with no consent required.
Am I the only one that questions this logic?
As a parent of a girl, I am responsible for her medical care. I had to sign a form allowing her pediatrician to administer vaccinations. I must fill out medical forms yearly so she can attend daycare. I had to be present when she had surgery so I could make any medical decisions in case something bad happened.
But now, girls everywhere will be able to walk into stores and purchase the morning-after bill with no parental consent, no doctor's advice and no oversight whatsoever. All in the name of "reproductive rights."
When did I lose control to care for my child? Why must I fill out endless forms for her to take a trip and yet have no knowledge she's taking a pill that could have harmful psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical effects?
To me, this is not just a moral issue but a parental one. Regardless of where you come down on the abortion issue (and I am adamantly pro-life), as a parent, you have the responsibility of caring for your child. That gives you the right to know what he or she is taking medicinally.
It saddens me that "reproductive rights" now trumps "parental rights." I just want to be able to parent my daughter.
Apparently, soon, parental rights have limits.
Unlike morning after pills.
In less than a week, we leave for youth camp. In less than a month, we depart for our mission trip to St. Louis. In six weeks, we take our children to kids camp.
All of those trips include lengthy medical forms that must be filled out. On the forms, allergies, medicines and health conditions have to be listed. Insurance cards and numbers must be included. Signatures from parents are required. In the past, some of those forms even needed to be notarized.To take students to camp or mission trip requires a fairly detailed, finely-worded process that must be signed off by parents or the student cannot attend or participate. (I once misplaced a form and was told that student could only sit in the dorm room until the form was found and faxed.)
Yet, thanks to recent court rulings and now the Obama administration backing off of their appeal of those rulings, those same students who must have duplicate copies of signed medical forms for mission trips can get the morning-after pill with no consent required.
Am I the only one that questions this logic?
As a parent of a girl, I am responsible for her medical care. I had to sign a form allowing her pediatrician to administer vaccinations. I must fill out medical forms yearly so she can attend daycare. I had to be present when she had surgery so I could make any medical decisions in case something bad happened.
But now, girls everywhere will be able to walk into stores and purchase the morning-after bill with no parental consent, no doctor's advice and no oversight whatsoever. All in the name of "reproductive rights."
When did I lose control to care for my child? Why must I fill out endless forms for her to take a trip and yet have no knowledge she's taking a pill that could have harmful psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical effects?
To me, this is not just a moral issue but a parental one. Regardless of where you come down on the abortion issue (and I am adamantly pro-life), as a parent, you have the responsibility of caring for your child. That gives you the right to know what he or she is taking medicinally.
It saddens me that "reproductive rights" now trumps "parental rights." I just want to be able to parent my daughter.
Apparently, soon, parental rights have limits.
Unlike morning after pills.
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