Posted on 01/05/2010 3:57:52 PM PST by Millicent_Hornswaggle
A Massachusetts mother with nine children who had asked a hospital for post-delivery birth control was sterilized instead without her consent, according to a lawsuit against the Springfield hospital and several doctors and nurses.
Tessa Savicki, 35, claimed that doctors at Baystate Medical Center had agreed to insert an intrauterine device, or IUD, that she brought to the operating room, but instead performed a tubal ligation that effectively ended her chances of having more children.
"They've done something. They cannot correct this," she told ABCNews.com. "You think you're safe at the hospital. You're not."
Savicki's attorney, Dr. Max Borten of Waltham, Mass., a licensed obstetrician-gynecologist who practiced for 30 years, said his client was devastated when she found out about the tubal ligation shortly after a December 2006 Cesarean section.
Awake with only spinal anesthesia, Saviciki "realized that when she was still on the table," he said.
Savicki's children range in age from 3 to 21 and she is a grandmother of one with another grandchild on the way. She had her first child, a boy, at age 13 after being raped, she told ABC News.
Getting back on her feet after a rough start -- two of her children are on welfare and she is unemployed -- Savicki said she's working toward her GED.
Her three youngest children are with her fiance, Angel Tirado, who she said was hoping for one more baby. Their youngest, Manuel, was recently diagnosed with autism.
"He was talking about trying for another boy," she said.
She understands that she would not be able to adopt, given her financial situation.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The hospital claims she asked to be sterilized.
While I don’t agree with her irresponsiblity I also hate the fact that someone did this to her. This is not communist China and the government has no buisness telling people how many kids they can have.
IMHO it would be better to tell them that $X is the maximum amount of money the state gives and figure what a family of 4 would get, that alone would stop a lot of this unhindered reproduction.
“Welfare” is run by local/state governments, who decide the eligibility requirements. Any money that comes from the Federal government comes with a work requirement. The things that you say you want were adopted in 1996, when “welfare as we knew it” was changed,
For instance, take this case. It is heinous but rare - its very rarity is why it is making the news. TAFDC, which is the Massachusetts “welfare” system, is partially funded by US benefits, the rest by the contributions of MA taxpayers, and its eligibility requirements are decided by the Commonwealth. Any US benefits come with a five-year lifetime limit and work requirements - as directed by the law passed in 1996. There are exceptions of health problems, and for the elderly.
A little bit of googling uncovers this information:
Info on the Massachusetts “welfare” system - Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children: how much is spent, where the funding comes from, how many children are living with parents, grandparents, in foster homes, etc.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/cwf/child-welfare-financing-fact-sheet-massachusetts-2006.pdf
The Federal program that gives money for “welfare” is called TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/
Here’s a chart of the moeny that was spent on this program in 2008, and how it was allocated to the individual states:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofs/data/2008/tableA_summary_2008.html.
The total amount was almost 6 billion for all states - Massachusetts receiving ^9 million, less than states such as Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Missouri.
The entire federal budget for 2008 was $2,979 Billion - which does not include $188 billion for GWOT.
A history of the welfare system in the US - a good one, written by a Conservative
http://morganwrites.wordpress.com/2008/03/08/welfare-system-in-the-united-states-part-2/
I came to the conclusion that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I'm coming back sterile...
Love my kids, all in their 40-50s. Raising a large family once is enough...
“This does disturb me, if it happened to her it could happen to any other woman.”
##########
No, this is a set-up. This woman is using the system and her nine kids to “find” a lawsuit. She’s not new to suing:
“The suit against Baystate is not the first reproductive claim Savicki has filed. In 2001, Borten confirmed, Savicki won a settlement against CVS and a spermicide company after she became pregnant using expired spermicide.”
She sued because she became pregnant in the above case. Now she’s suing because she can’t become pregnant.
The point of law in this is the 30-day consent for surgical sterilization. I’ve been through this scam many times with Medicaid patients.
The consent for surgical sterilization must be signed within 30 days of surgery and if the patient calls to cancel/delay the surgery, and the R.N. or M.D. doesn’t check the date, they are held accountable.
It’s a common scam and she is a pro.
But they can’t produce a consent form. This leads me to believe the woman.
*
Simple way around it... Norplant while they're on welfare. When they're off of it, the Norplant implants can come out, if the woman decides that's what she wants. However, permanent surgical sterilization without permission reeks of eugenics.
Mark
That’s exactly what I’ve been advocating, but the liberals in this thread believe everything is for the “childrenz.”
I hear ya! From a large Catholic family myself - as the oldest kid, I had to ride herd on the younger 5. Talk about work!
But hey - we did it all on fried bologna and macaroni, canned peas and fish sticks, and a lot of love. We all grew up to be honest and hard-working, too.
However when it came time for my own family, it just wasn’t possible to have more than the one we have, for health reasons.
It may have been a bit more luxurious for our one, but I bet it wasn’t any happier. I wouldn’t give up my siblings for the ruling the world.
One of the parties we had 4 and just kept relighting the candles and singing happy birthday to the next in line .....everyone was laughing..
It sounds silly but I have a feeling that all the grandkids will remember the group birthday parties...
Of course grandma gives to all reguardless of age....
Others have constructively made the point that the welfare household loop is a bad thing.
Spike Knotts I care as much about her little brood of monsters as I do about the children who died screaming in Dresden
That's not a bad way of saying it. These children didn't ask for their situation.
“.....if the hospital can produce the paperwork, stating that she authorized to be sterilized, are they off the hook?”
########
No. They violated a state law by using her “out-dated” consent to sterilize her. Even if the consent was one hour outdated after she delivered, the consent is not valid.
She had a C-Section and in the hustle of that the time expired on her sterilization consent. She’s using that against the hospital. She’s a player. She’s not the first. Beware, taxpayers!
It is not her fault we turned the government into Uncle Sucker. If welfare was not available to her, she would stop having kids or they would be taken away from her and adopted out if she was unable to care for them.
Americans warped the constitutional role of government and that has warped our society to accomodate this kind of immoral abuse and stupidity.
I think the problem here is that the role of government has been morphed from being a very limited entity, the intended glue to hold the Union together to national problem solver and the effect this role shift has on society. The fight against this kind of encroachment is nothing new. Even Thomas Jefferson and James Madison fought it because they knew it leads straight down the road to enslavement and tyranny when we no longer take care of ourselves, but look to the government for the answer to every ill.
The position I take on this is similar to the one I took on TARP and the subsequent whining about how the CEO of BofA was treated. When one participates in socialism, one has to take the ‘good’ with the bad of it. This woman did have a choice in the matter and chose to live off public assistance, thus opening the door to the possibility of this kind of thing happening to her. If it did indeed happened to her, it was probably a citizen who dislikes the idea of what she was doing and took it upon themselves to solve it, which of course is unlawful, but I can hardly blame them.
But here is an example of exactly what happens when our Constitution becomes rather meaningless to the government, it also becomes meaningless to the public because there is no way that the ideas and expectations of individualism and self-determination embodied in that document can coexist with socialism. They are entirely different societal goals that are diametrically opposed to each other.
And really, it is up to us as a nation to make a choice regarding which road we want to follow because in the end we really cannot end up having our cake and eating it too.
See post #85.
‘It is not her fault we turned the government into Uncle Sucker”
Each of us is part of the problem or part of the solution. I choose not to do things because I don’t have the money rather than steal it from others.
She decided her wishes were more important than anyone else. Instead of blaming the ‘govt’ for our decisions its far better to teach personal responsibility and condemn the leaches in our society.
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