Posted on 08/10/2012 3:58:30 PM PDT by jazusamo
Full title: Obamacare Reg Forces Health Plans to Give Free Sterilizations to 15-Year-Old Girls--Without Parental Consent
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, President Barack Obama and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the White House on March 23, 2010, the day Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (White House Photo/Pete Souza)
(CNSNews.com) - Thanks to an Obamacare regulation that took effect on Aug. 1, health care plans in Oregon will now be required to provide free sterilizations to 15- year-old girls even if the parents of those girls do not consent to the procedure.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finalized the regulation earlier this year.
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 of reproductive capacity" means girls as young as about 12. That, according to the National Institutes of Health, is when girls usually start menstruating.
When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--a.k.a. Obamacare--was enacted in March 2010 it included ( in Section 2713) a non-specific requirement that health care plans must provide "additional preventive services" to women. These unspecified "additional preventive services," the law said, were to be "provided for in comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration," a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.
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.”
White House staff toast Obama on the Truman Balcony early on March 22, 2010, after PPACA had passed Congress. (White House Photo/Pete Souza)
The committee report said that “with reproductive capacity” meant “from the time of menarche to menopause.” Menarche is the beginning of menstruation--again, on average, about the age of 12 for American women.
On Aug. 1, 2011, HHS announced that it was adopting the IOM committee's recommendation almost verbatim. In fact, it added just one word--placing "all" in front of "women with reproductive capacity."
Thus, the regulation issued by the Health Resources and Services Administration said: "Non-grandfathered plans and issuers are required to provide coverage without cost-sharing consistent with these guidelines in the first plan year (in the individual market, policy year) that begins on or after August 1, 2012. ... All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity."
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."
However, states have varying laws on the age of consent. CNSNews.com took a look at Oregon and its rule of consent for sterilization--one of the free services required by the Obama administration's regulation.
In Oregon, the age of informed consent is 15, and the law and rules on sterilization are detailed in the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 436.205 to 436.335.
Under Oregon law, girls from 15 years of age and up are given complete control over whether to be sterilized or not. The parents or guardians of a minor girl--between 15 and 18--can neither grant nor deny consent for a sterilization.
The Oregon law says: "'Informed consent' means consent given by an individual 15 years of age or older for sterilization that is: (a) Based upon a full understanding of the nature and consequences of sterilization pursuant to information requirements set forth in ORS 436.225(1); (b) Given by an individual competent to make such a decision; and (c) Wholly voluntary and free from coercion, express or implied."
Oregon defines "sterilization" as "any medical procedure, treatment or operation for the purpose of rendering an individual permanently incapable of procreating."
The Oregon Health Authority has created a special consent form called " Ages 15-20 Consent to Sterilization."
Who knows what will happen down the road if obamacare is in fact put into effect, I believe it's scary.
Well I talk to someone in the know and pro-lifer’s are increasing and pro-deather’s are decreasing.I asked for stats but they didn’t have them handy.Look around couples are not having children.
” They put this regulation in for one reason and one reason only ==>> population reduction.
Sterilizing a male does nothing(or very little) to reduce the population. Sterilizing a female does.”
if they believe that they are bigger idiots than we thought! Anyone who watches the Maury show knows better! Stearilize the boys!!
I look at that picture of Sebelius, obama and Peelousy and all I can think is: “Where is a bucket full of Holy water when you need one?”
Their goal is to politicize this as a “womens” issue same as with the HPV vaccine, no matter that MEN were getting throat and testicular cancer.
The Sex Positive agenda is not about reducing human debris along the highway of cultural excess.
By politicizing this as a WOMENS issue, thy hope to silence male voices.
This is horrific. No 15 year old girl is really able to make a decision that will permanently affect her life and reproductive capacity like this. For example, what if a 15 year old girl gets into a terrific argument with her parents about her most recent boyfriend or when she should be in at night and decides to get revenge on them by having herself sterilized. Then, ten years later, at age 25, she marries a man with whom she’s genuinely in love and they both want to have children but can’t because of her rash decision ten years earlier.
specifically, the reduction of "undesirables". Who, exactly is undesirable depends upon the speaker's agenda, but you can bet that, like abortion, it will fall most heavily on blacks.
Once again the govt. trumps the parents’ wishes. Is this America?
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