 A few weeks ago, I naively suggested that a strong candidate for the most idiotic and extreme legislation proposed, during this session of the GOP-controlled Minnesota legislature, was a bill that would limit welfare recipients to having no more than $20 cash at any given time. That one's been pretty much left in the dust, in this context. But my own new candidate (bearing in mind that there's still plenty of time for conservatives to get even crazier) has got to be a bill requiring minors to have parental permission to access some basic health care services:Republican lawmakers want to make a note from Mom and Dad necessary for teens to see their doctors--or maybe even their school nurse. A GOP proposal before the Minnesota legislature wants to require minors to obtain written parental consent before having access to some basic young adult healthcare services. These services include pregnancy testing and birth control prescription, STD testing and chemical abuse help. If the proposal becomes law, it would overturn a four-decades old statute that allows minors to see a doctor without parental permission. Here's more information.Should it ever become law, the bill would also be the most restrictive in the country when it comes to teen sexual health. No other state requires parental consent for STD and pregnancy tests and contraceptive prescriptions according to data assembled by the Guttmacher Institute. This one's the brainchild of Sen. David Hann (R-Eden Prairie, pictured).
I confess that I'm having more than the usual amount of trouble, trying to nail down would could possibly be going on in the sponsoring legislator's head, on this one. Does he honestly believe that, if this becomes law, teenagers will not only stop having sex, and quit experimenting with drugs like alcohol, but will also become models of respectful obedience toward their parents at all times? Not to mention score straight A's, listen up in church, and join the Young Republicans? Your guess is as good as mine...All I'll add is that I know a good many parents of teenagers, past and present, and nothing I've been told by them, indicates that that is realistic. Quite the contrary. |
