Pregnant
teen dies after abortion ban delays her chemo treatment for leukemia
From Rafael
Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs Editor
updated
1:20 AM EDT, Sat August 18, 2012
“CNN) -- The mother of a pregnant leukemia patient
who died after her chemotherapy was delayed over anti- abortion laws is
accusing doctors of not putting her daughter's health first.
The 16-year-old's plight
attracted worldwide attention after she had to wait for chemotherapy because of
an abortion ban in the Dominican Republic.
Doctors were hesitant to give her
chemotherapy because such treatment could terminate the pregnancy -- a
violation of the Dominican Constitution, which bans abortion. Some 20 days
after she was admitted to the hospital, she finally started receiving
treatment.
She died Friday, a hospital
official said….”
Cassi Creek: This
death in the Dominican Republic is the shadow of things to come, if we allow
the election of Romney/Ryan to take place.
The social calendar will be rolled back to the days of theocracies and
oligarchies. Medical care, particularly
for women, will be controlled by religious dictates.
There is no
assurance that Rosa Hernandez would have survived leukemia had she been allowed
to undergo chemotherapy. Chemotherapy
might have induced a spontaneous abortion, terminating her 13 weeks
pregnancy. However, the dictates of a
theocracy condemned her to an ugly, painful, and futile death caused by a
treatable disease. Apparently, the
concerns of the young woman and her mother had no weight in the matter.
To the
Dominican Republic, the Roman Catholic Church, and to Paul Ryan and Mitt
Romney, Ms. Hernandez had less worth than a fetus. She was, in their view, little more than a
biological incubator.
This is the
rollback point for women’s health care that Romney, Ryan, and the teavangelists
want force upon the women of the United States.
Can we wind up with women reluctant to serve as incubators being forced
to carry unwanted fetuses? Will some be
confined to padded cells, chained to their beds from conception to
delivery? It sounds extreme, to be
sure. So does denying chemotherapy to a
16 year old.
No comments:
Post a Comment