The impending era of back alley births

By Tom Quiner

Joy was a sick little girl.

Only 14 weeks old since her conception, she was diagnosed with hydroencephaly. That meant her brain wouldn’t develop properly; that it would fill with fluid; that her chance of surviving to birth was bleak; and that if she actually was born, she had minimal chance for any kind of normal life.

The medical staff recommended abortion. The parents said no.

Joy’s mother faced life-threatening risks by continuing with the pregnancy. This necessitated a number of trips to the hospital to drain fluid to prevent uterine rupture.

Joy was delivered at 36 weeks by C-section. She died six days later in intensive care.

The emotional trauma to Joy’s parents was surely incalculable. On the other hand, medical costs are calculable, and someone has to pay these costs.

Who?

Obamacare may change the answer. The answer may soon be that no one, whether a private insurance company or the government, will pay for it, but they will pay to have Joy aborted, because that is more cost-effective.

Section 1553 of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) says something amazing:

(a) In General – The Federal Government, and any State or local government or health care provider that receives Federal financial assistance under this Act (or under an amendment made by this Act) or any health plan created under this Act (or under an amendment made by this Act), may not subject an individual or institutional health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the entity does not provide any health care item or service [emphasis mine] furnished for the purpose of causing, or for the purpose of assisting in causing, the death of any individual, such as by assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing.

The implication is clear: euthanasia is considered health care. In other words, death is a legitimate health care treatment. Obamacare is saying it won’t discriminate against you if you don’t want to provide euthanasia, but suggests that providing assisted suicide services is the norm.

Obamacare treats human life as a disease to be contained, at best, and eradicated when inconvenient or expensive. That’s why it mandates that all insurance coverage include “free” contraception, “free” abortifacients, and “free” sterilization. (For the record, sterilizations cost more than $7000 each here in Iowa, someone has to pay, they are certainly not “free.”)

The bill greases the skids for medical providers to require an abortion, in cases like Joy, as the best form of “health care.” If parents balk, they may be faced with seeking a “back alley” birth.

You may think this scenario is far-fetched. I wish it were.

Obamacare creates an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). They are an appointed body, independent and unaccountable.

Their job? To contain spending. They have clout, since they determine what is paid by insurance, or more importantly, what is not.

What type of treatment will they allow if you are very old and in bad shape?

What type of treatment will they allow if it is flagged while you are in the womb that you carry the Downs chromosome?

How about spinal bifida?

Sarah Palin was reviled by the president and his party when she characterized Obamacare as authorizing the use of “death panels.”

Was she very far off the mark? Obamacare treats poison for assisted suicides as healthcare. It has allowed Health and Human Services to erect anti life policies by fiat, even as it tramples on religious liberties.

The president and his party claim they are all about choice. In the months and years to come, will they allow the parents of future Joys a choice, or will they usher in an era of back alley births?