Dear editor:
House Bill 1077 , sponsored by Kathy Rapp would require women who are scheduled for pregnancy termination, even if it would be an life-threatening emergency, to undergo a medically-unnecessary 24 hour waiting period and another ultrasound procedure by someone other than a doctor and to help out the person performing the ultrasound by watching it on screen, despite not being trained to understand what a monitor might be showing.
In addition, it is an additional fee, billed separately, and the file must be sent with the patient and kept in a data base at the facility. Presumably, it would require a second appointment at a facility that provides that service. Because, it is so easy to get to see a doctor in the first place. Governor Corbett suggests women 'close their eyes' when the government mandated video is placed in their face.
Rapp wants a government-mandated, medically-unnecessary procedure and to insert itself into decisions made between a patient and her medical professional. The Pennsylvania Medical Society has opposed this bill on the grounds that it would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and that it would legislate specific medical protocols. It is designed to use the government to bully and shame women accessing their Constitutional rights, assuming they are too stupid. Viagra has known side effects such as causing blindness and erections lasting more than four hours. She should sponsor a bill that would require a 24-hour waiting period, rectal exam and a ultrasound for those seeking a prescription for erectile dysfunction and to require that a data base of those seeking erectile dysfunction prescriptions be compiled and maintained for seven years sent to the House of Representatives for review like her bill. Men have a right to know safe alternatives, such as abstinence. Catholics believe masturbation is a sin. The government should maintain a list of all men and require self-reporting. Who will speak for all those lost babies?
President George W. Bush eloquently said: "we got issue in this country, too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country", and 'fool me once, you can't get fooled again'. Rapp is a national disgrace, but it beats talking about Republican's dismal record on jobs and the economy.
John Cecil Baughman, MBA
Marienville
(note, the Bush quote verbatim left out either the descriptive adjective 'an' issue or the plural issue(s) when speaking 'we got issue in this country'....)