MO Rep. Stacey Newman Proposes Bill to Restrict Vasectomies

RFT ^ | March 2, 2012 | Paul Friswold

[NYer]

Representative Stacey Newman.

​Well, well, well. The birth control debate has finally come to our swimsuit areas, gentlemen. Yesterday Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman (D-St. Louis County) filed HB1853, which would only allow a man to have a vasectomy when doing so would protect him from serious injury or prevent his death.

Ah, the legislation's on the other set of genitalia now.
Rep. Newman -- whom I'd like to nominate for Hero Squad right here and now -- has been frustrated with the recent political debates over birth control access and reproductive health. The legislation is her pointed way of combating the idea that family planning is something only women have to worry about.

If passed, HB1853 will insure that vasectomies will only be performed in medical facilities licensed by the Department of Health and Senior Services, such as a hospital, ambulatory surgery center or similarly designated health facility. Vasectomies will be legal and safe, and the back-alley ballsnipper that so many indigent men are forced to seek out when they want to get their junk switched off will become a thing of the past. For too long, men have butchered themselves using weed-whackers, small chainsaws and footballs to the groin so that they could no longer father children they didn't want to be a father to. HB1853 will bring us to a more enlightened age.

Also, it could conceivably cause one of those right-wing bible-fondlers who are so certain that they have the authority to dictate what women can do with their bodies to choke on both indignation and irony. Bitter, bitter irony.

Rep. Stacey Newman, you got a great big pair of brass balls. Never change.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And let me remind you again that you injected the smirk.

[DoughtyOne]

You will crucify a doctor for having a Christian conscience about the matter that is more sensitive to the 1 Cor passage. My how Christian of YOU.

Where did I suggest a physician should be killed? Please link me to that post. I'd like to have it for my collection.

You have completely lost all objectivity here.

I am a bad guy because I think it is a breach of a doctor's oath to try to tell me I cannot obtain medical services without another human being's sign off.

At no point did I ever say this physician was a Christian either. You dreamed that up on your own. Care to tell me how that relates to the instance I recited. You don't get to make the facts up, just so you can play God.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You believe Christian doctors have sworn to violate their consciences before God if Caesar so demands?

You are really far gone.

[DoughtyOne]

So you definitively stating that God will wipe a smirk off my face, is NOT you being blasphemous? It is not you setting yourself up as judge and jury, as a God above me? You are not dictating to God what His ultimate decision is? You are not superseding God here?

And you’re the one who needs to be doing public rebuking?

You have judged yourself.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It suffices that a Christian doctor could have a valid biblical reason to make the same request. You don’t care, you just set up the doctor as a hypothetical and said you would come charging in with Caesar’s authority “bright and early.” I call that crucifying, whether or not it ends in a literal death.

[HiTech RedNeck]

There is joy in heaven; nary a smirk.

[DoughtyOne]

So in your learned opinion, it’s okay if a physician denies me medical care.

It’s not okay if I object.

It is not okay if the government holds the same opinion I do.

[DoughtyOne]

Yep, you say a lot of things. Not much of it is hinged on reality, but it’s your right to advocate for what you want, no matter how insane it might be.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m so glad to hear from someone who has actually been there, and has pretended to rule as if from on high.

Thanks.

[SaraJohnson]

Often, freepers speak for God. We must be qualified. :)

[DoughtyOne]

Yes they do, and yes we should be.

Other than in general terms, I know I’m not qualified to do so.

Thanks Sarah.

I happen to think HiTech RedNeck is a good person too.

[SaraJohnson]

Me too. :)

[DoughtyOne]

I’m glad. Take care...

[HiTech RedNeck]

One does not have to be ultra “learned” to respect the classic American model of freedom which came from the scriptures themselves.

Your “right” to do what you want with your body in the name of “medical care” (shades of Sandra Fluke?) is in tension with the physician’s conscience rights.

America classically solved this problem by saying okay, the doctor is not your slave and vassal. It’s OK for some to refuse to do certain things by conscience. However if you find a willing physician we will not ban you or the physician from doing what you choose.

If you do not want to accept this classic solution, we have a problem here, Houston. And I thoroughly believe I have taken the high road in addressing it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

P.S. I would like to invite you to come back in a few days, after hopefully cooling down, and look at some of the things you said, and compare them to arguments coming out of, not conservatives, but statist leftists. See if there is more of a similarity than you want now to admit.

[DoughtyOne]

For all your talk of statism, it never dawned on you that this physician was perfectly willing to do the vasectomy, he just demanded permission from a third party before he would do it.

The moral ground was lost at that point.

The next time you’re in the emergency room with a broken leg, broken arm, crushed ribs, a stroke or a heart attack, I hope you’re able to contact your wife right away. Otherwise important time sensitive medical care will not be provided, while you continue to quote verses from 1st Corinthians to the medical staff. Of course if you’re unconscious, they’ll still have to wait for permission from your wife since they’re acting ethically.

Your premise would also prevent them from providing medical care on an accident site, or any place where they happened to be called to give you medical care.

I suggest you get a medical card for your wallet, and put the 1st Corinthians chapter and verse on a bracelet or necklace too.

“Be advised any medical personnel, I do not have authority to grant you permission to provide emergency medical service. Please contact my wife when you get a chance. Until then, do not lay hands on me.”

I’d sure hate to think you or your wife would die face up bleeding out on a highway, because one of you left home and forgot your cell phone, but what the hey, you followed 1st Corinthians all the way.

Gotta have that permission from the spouse folks. That’s God’s will. Anything else is unethical...