[nathanbedford]

No treatment without indoctrination.

That appears to be the purpose and effect of this Michigan law. If the sign is accurate, it says that a child must submit to private instruction by a nurse of the institution or the child will not be treated. The story says there is no possibility of an "opt out" by the parent.

The constitutional question is obvious, in a world in which the court requires hospitals to treat everybody and sometimes requires people to submit to treatment, may the state require as a condition of that treatment that a child submit to indoctrination? Should the decision turn on what the enabling legislation authorizes or requires by way of indoctrination? Or is it enough simply to say that there is an inherent right in the child and in the parent to be free of brainwashing?

[cva66snipe]

What is going on is this. States likely under pressure from the feds have decreed that 16 year old girls are medically adults when it comes to reproduction.

In short they can go to a doctor, get an abortion, get a morning after pill, be treated for STD's and get birth control, all without the parent being alerted, asked for permission, or for that matter even allowed to access their minor kids medical records.

Unless the doctor or a nurse takes a personal legal/civil liability in telling you then you'll never know unless the kid tells you.

Please people don't flame me I'm only explaining this due to some unpleasant experiences I had with a minor who was in my custody. I don't think it is right, I certainly do not agree with it. But that is why they passed the law. The village Idiots have taken the place of parent and that is not aimed at the doctors or nurses. They can have their butts sued off and in these times face possible criminal charges as well.

[Jim Noble]

You are overlooking the central issue.

Just as slavery was a “peculiar institution” (in the sense that any custom, law, rule, or belief had to be modified if necessary to protect slavery), so too are the “reproductive rights” of minor children.

A girl who cannot consent to receive a Tylenol for a headache because she is a minor can consent to general anesthesia and surgery if necessary to procure an abortion. And there are many other examples, of which mandatory “health” counseling is a minor one.