Good questions, all.
I hope none of you are under the illusion that the press reported things correctly. They keep hounding us to say more about our religious beliefs whereas we would prefer to keep
this an issue of conscience.
Facts:
Oldest 2 children- not born in Nebraska. Oldest now 20-he went to college at 14, graduated at 17 with 2 degrees-youngest graduate ever of that University. 2nd oldest 17, sophomore at same university on the dean’s list.
Next 5 children-homebirthed in Nebraska. Received certified letters telling us to take children in for screening.
Checked into the law and found no enforcement provision.
Informed by others who had refused that we would be ignored or fined for non-compliance. We were ignored all five times.
Our 8th child, 6th born in Nebraska was Rosa. When she was 2 months old we received a subpoena to District Court. That had been added to the enforcement provision of the statute. We found a lawyer and fought it. That lawyer wanted us to fight it based on the First Amendment free exercise of religion. The case was only heard by the local district
court judge who understood nothing about the case and by the Nebraska Supreme Court. The Nebraska Supreme Court moved the case from the appeals court and the US Supreme Court did not hear the case.
Our 9th child, Justus, was born 2 years ago in Iowa to avoid the situation. A waiver form is included in the birth registration packet there.
For 2 consecutive legislative sessions, State Senator Synowiecki has proposed exemption legislation. The 2nd time we had high hopes. We had more people testifying in favor of the bill than against, signed testimonies of the trauma the screening had caused other parents, and a petition signed by over 100 people. There were only a couple of testimonies
from the state against the bill. However, it was killed in the health and human services committee and never made it to the floor for a vote.
Here are e-mails for the committee:
perdman@leg.ne.gov;
jjohnson@leg.ne.gov;
astuthman@leg.ne.gov;
tgay@leg.ne.gov;
dpankonin@leg.ne.gov
ghoward@leg.ne.gov;
thansen@leg.ne.gov;
Due to various reasons, Joel ended up being born in Nebraska. Believe me, if I had any idea this would have happened, I would have made more of an effort to have him in Iowa.
Joel was born on September 2. We immediately found a lawyer. On September 19th we received a certified letter telling us about the screening law and giving us until September 21st
to test. Then, we received a phone call from Newborn Screening asking if we would test. We replied “no”. She asked if I knew what would happen next. I replied “yes” understanding that we would be subpoenaed into district court as stated in the statute.
Weeks went by without hearing anything. Then, on the morning of October 11th just after I had gotten Joel up from his morning nap, my doorbell rang. When I answered the door, an
armed sheriff’s deputy came barging into my house yelling that he had a court order for Joel Anaya. I was screaming that I had not given him permission to enter my home. He said that he had a court order. I said that I wanted to call my lawyer. He said, “There’s no time.” There were 2 other deputies with guns and clubs guarding my doorways. He heard my children downstairs and ran downstairs where all my young children were. He snatched Joel out of my son’s arms and headed for the door. Joel was fussing and I knew he hadn’t eaten in 3 hours. I begged to be allowed to nurse him. The deputy told me, “There is no time. He will be cared for by professionals.” He ran out the door with my baby leaving me begging to nurse my baby and screaming for my son to call the lawyer. It was a cold day and the CPS people were not there yet to hand the baby over to, so the weather forced him back inside. I was crying and pleading to nurse.
My husband came home from the store just then. The sheriff deputies blocked him from entering our home.
I do not have time to elaborate further, but I do want to mention that the social workers invited me along, were quite compassionate, and allowed me to nurse on demand the first
day and a half until the juvenile court judge got all bent out of shape about my frequent nursing.
My entire family has been needlessly traumatized. I can not begin to tell you about all the ripple effects. For the sake of future generations, please help us to fight this horrible injustice.
Versus what are the odds for getting a bacterial infection from a needle stick in a hospital? One in 2,000? One in 1,000?
Mind you, I am making up these figures: but I'd bet dollars to donuts that the risk of bacterial infection at a hospital is greater than the rate of metabolic disease in a child whose parents an siblings do not have this disease.
Furthermore, the risk of disrupting nutrition and bonding bu interfering with a breastfeeding mom who wants to nurse her baby --- Good Lord, this is a tiny baby only 6 weeks old! --- outweighs the risks they are trying to screen for.
I'm not drawing any final conclusions here. I'd want to see the risk/benefit statistics. Surely they must be available somwhere.