Saturday, March 13, 2004

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

As the Ashcroft Justice Department demands the medical records of women who have undergone abortion procedures, the Salt Lake County district attorney is prosecuting a woman who refused a cesarean procedure against the advice of a doctor.

The unspoken issue raised by this article is why aren't charges being brought against the people who invaded the woman's privacy. The article states that a nurse told police about the woman's privileged conversations with medical providers. The police allegedly have a copy of a consent form that the woman signed which warned of the possibilities of refusing the procedure (which undoubtedly was given to her by the hospital to protect it from civil liability). How did the prosecutors get that privileged document? (And if the woman is guilty of a crime, why isn't the hospital guilty of failing to report a threatened crime to the police?)

There's a lot of information that hasn't come out about this story. But it seems like the right is developing a new weapon in its war against women.

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