Do You Not Know, Have You Not Heard? Questions every young American should contemplate the first/next time she votes:

That the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a press release dated June 7, 2013, opposing undue political interference in the doctor-patient relationship.  They also have issued a formal Statement of Policy:
http://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/News_Room/News_Releases/2013/Ob-Gyns_Issue_Policy_Opposing_Legislative_Interference
http://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/News_Room/News_Releases/2013/Ob-Gyns_Denounce_Texas_Abortion_Legislation
http://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/News_Room/News_Releases/2012/Response_to_Politicians_Inaccurate_Abortion_Comments
See also the New England Journal of Medicine article that describes the forms of undue political interference:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb1209858

That ethical informed consent in medical research is a principle that should carry over into ethical clinical practice untainted by undue political interference:
http://answers.hhs.gov/ohrp/categories/1566
http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/consent.html
http://www.ama-assn.org//ama/pub/physician-resources/legal-topics/patient-physician-relationship-topics/informed-consent.page

That ethical informed consent as we know it today is the direct result of the Belmont Report issued in the wake of the Tuskeegee Syphilis Study scandal:
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html

That undue political interference in women's health care already has taken a devastating toll in women's lives both here and abroad:
Consider the case of Danielle DEAVER.
http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/4d746bd70eb25
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126108/Nebraskas-new-abortion-law-forced-mother-birth-22-weeks-watch-baby-die.html

Consider the case of Savita HALAPPANAVAR:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20321741
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Savita-Halappanavars-husbands-detailed-diary-of-days-leading-up-to-her-death-183769781.html
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/savita-halappanavars-abortion-requests-missing-from-medical-file-16241442.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2013/0118/1224329001402.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20405702
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20779631
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264608/Savita-Halappanavar-Husband-demands-answers-inquest.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/medics-treating-savita-halappanavar
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/did-irish-catholic-law-or-malpractice-kill-savita-halappanavar

Consider the case of Carolyn JONES:
http://www.texasobserver.org/we-have-no-choice-one-womans-ordeal-with-texas-new-sonogram-law/
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/22/169059701/we-have-no-choice-a-story-of-the-texas-sonogram-law

Consider the case of NATIVE AMERICAN women:
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/no_plan_b_for_native_american_women/
http://www.msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/06/07/wishful-thinking-or-science-morning-after-pill-abortion-myth-debunked/

Consider the case of American women serving in "our" military -- especially BEFORE you enlist:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2011/11/29/her-service-and-sacrifice-demand-fairness-and-equal-treatment-from-congress
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/05/26/military-women-deserve-firstclass-treatment-secondclass-status

Consider the case of Ann KEENAN and how those who refuse to learn from history have no qualms about forcing others to repeat it:
http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/mitt_romney_abortion_ann_keenan

Consider the plight of millions of women around the globe:
http://livewire.amnesty.org/2012/07/11/looking-for-human-rights-at-family-planning-summit/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22958512
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/18/female-genital-mutilation-circumcision-indonesia

That in this day and age, every woman's access to information, education, and medical services for her reproductive health is not just some extra pork in her state's budget, it is a basic human right:
http://www.unfpa.org/gender/index.htm
http://www.unfpa.org/rights/rh.htm
http://www.unfpa.org/rh/planning.htm
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/13/us-women-un-rights-idUSBRE92C1EN20130313
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/166196.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/381827.stm

That many committed Catholics also believe in the right -- and the duty -- of every woman to plan her pregnancies for the sake of her children:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/11/melinda-gates-challenges-vatican-contraception

That even with the best state-of-the-art medical testing, things can still go very, very wrong:
http://www.npr.org/books/titles/174114011/the-still-point-of-the-turning-world

That it is incumbent upon every voter to check out the scientific reliability of research cited by politicians to the extent she can:
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/evidencecheck/index.html
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/resources/research-papers-23519.htm

That TRAP laws have nothing to do with regulating hunting in your state:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SBtu5Pxf68cJ:http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/groups/oslj/files/2013/05/12_Manian_Publisher.pdf%2Bwww.guttmacher.org/pubs.gpr/11/14/gpr110420.html&hl=en&gbv=2&ct=clnk

That political ends make sacrificing women's ethical health care an expedient means only if women are gullible enough to vote shysters into office:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9493653/US-election-Mitt-Romney-met-Todd-Akin-doctor-John-Willke-during-2012-campaign.html

That not every doctor weighing in on women's health care knows what he is talking about:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us/politics/rape-assertions-are-dismissed-by-health-experts.html

So make sure that you consult a doctor who knows what s/he is talking about:
http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/get-involved/advisory-boards-and-initiatives/republicans-choice/goldwater-award/

That you also should inform yourself about how religious doctrines enforced by clerics with no medical qualifications whatsoever can affect the quality of health care you will receive at any hospital BEFORE you permit yourself to be admitted:
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2011/05/09/treatment-denied/

That, when it comes to financial accountability, Planned Parenthood is NOT the institution on international criminal watchlists for its money laundering practices:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/28/vatican-prelate-plot-smuggle-20m
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/europe/pope-fills-key-job-at-troubled-vatican-bank.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/europe/power-struggle-on-reforming-vatican-bank.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9130182/US-list-Vatican-as-money-laundering-risk.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/08/vatican-laundering-idUSL5E8E89AM20120308

That those opposed to ethical reproductive health care would do better to take care of the children we already have in this country:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15193530
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/mitt-romney-rejects-his-natural-voters-by-jeffrey-frankel
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/05/star-house-funding-still-kept-out-of-state-budget.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18585020

That a painful truth in human history is that some women can and do behave just as treacherously toward other women as some men do:
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/scholtz-klink2.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERscholtz.htm
http://womanwarriors.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/gertrud-scholtz-klink-female-fuhrer-breathed-her-nazi-beliefs/
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/ScholtzKlinkGertrud/

That a hopeful truth in human history is that other women find the courage to speak out and to help eachother:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/p_sanger.html
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4847bx.htm
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/
http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUFeature/TribTheater.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/world/europe/18aubrac.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/mar/16/guardianobituaries.france
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/spots_of_light/stefania_wilczynska.asp
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/events/event_details.asp?cid=100

WHAT I DID ON MY DAY OFF: I went to Governor Kasich's office after the rally to tell him what I think of him.

As you all know, Governor John Kasich is so terrified of women in pink carrying 17,000 petitions from Ohio citizens that he was a no-show at his ceremonial office in the Ohio statehouse earlier today.  When called at his working office in the Riffe Center across High Street, his office said that a representative would arrive in ten minutes to receive the petitions.  The governor's representative also was a no-show.  So, those carrying phones began calling his office again. After the callers waited on hold for several minutes, the message came
back from our illustrious governor that his office was too understaffed to send even a clerk across the street.   Would we care to troop across the street and deliver the petitions at his working office instead?  Well, the decision was to stack those 17,000 petitions at the locked door of the ceremonial office in the
statehouse and get on with our business.

After that, I walked to Grant Hospital to make a payment on a bill.  On the way, I stopped at the offices of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio to say hello.  Then, at the hospital after paying my bill, I bought a cup of fancy coffee in the lobby.  There I buttonholed two young ladies to tell them what had happened.  By the time I was done, I had two more voters committed to showing up on Election Day next year.

Of course, as a worker bee COTA rider, I still had a few errands to run on my day pass.  Walking back toward High Street on the way to the bank, I decided to stop at the Riffe Center reception desk.  They
directed me to the 30th floor after checking my bag.  When I got to the 30th floor, I met an Ohio state trooper and asked whether the Governor's minions took walk-ins or where to go to set up an appointment.  He graciously explained the procedure to me, and I proceeded to fill out the form:  Date, Name, Address, Phone Number, Brief Description Why You Want To See The Governor.  Knowing that they would never agree to see me, I left this message -- more or less -- for Ohio's Fearless Fuehrer:

I just stopped by to tell you that I wrote a $50 check for an UNRESTRICTED donation to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio in response to your abject cowardice earlier today.  In addition, I buttonholed two young ladies at the fancy-schmancy coffee shop and convinced them to vote against you in the next election.  I heard it through the grapevine that your office is too understaffed to send even a clerk to pick up the petitions of 17,000 Ohio citizens.  Maybe you should contact your cronies at JobsOhio, and they can connect you with some qualified help.  The moral of this story is, disrespect one old coot and you will end up with three Democrats. (By the way, I helped Mark Kirk* during his first run for the [US] House [of
Representatives] years ago.)

*2008 Barry Goldwater, Sr., Award
---------------

The Ohio state troopers and the lobby reception desk personnel were most gracious and professional.  I look forward to electing a governor worthy of their loyal service.

You know, the one good thing about getting gray and arthritic is that you finally can get away with telling people what you really think.

To The Ladies Of The 130th Ohio General Assembly

As you most certainly must know by now, The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a press release on June 7, 2013, opposing undue political interference between doctors and their patients.  This organization of QUALIFIED medical professionals views the political threat to women's health care so seriously that they also have issued a formal Statement of Policy.  You can access their Statement of Policy in pdf format through a hyperlink in their press release (assuming you care enough about other women patients to bother):

http://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/News_Room/News_Releases/2013/Ob-Gyns_Issue_Policy_Opposing_Legislative_Interference

In their press release, these obstetricians and gynecologists specifically oppose subjecting patients to unnecessary tests and procedures like ultrasounds for no medical reason.  They reject being forced to recite scientifically disputed -- and even disproven -- scripts as if they were holy writ, for that can only subvert the relationship of trust between them and their patients.  Evidently, doctors don't like being forced to pervert informed consent for base political reasons anymore than any sane patient wants to be betrayed and put at gratuitous risk by statehouse-sponsored lies:

http://answers.hhs.gov/ohrp/categories/15666
http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/consent.html
http://www.ama-assn.org//ama/pub/physician-resources/legal-topics/patient-physician-relationship-topics/informed-consent.page

Unfortunately, the 130th General Assembly has been a breeding ground for assinine TRAP bills like Ohio HB 200; bills to pervert informed consent; and even budget amendments to defund Planned Parenthood by rigging the Title X grant approval process as payback for refusing to play political footsie by betraying their patients.  The willful ignorance and the reckless disregard for patients behind these bills couldn't be crasser.

Accordingly, any woman in the 130th General Assembly who supports this ongoing idiocy -- or remains silent in her own caucus lest she be outted as a woman of true conscience -- deserves to take her place next to Gertrud Scholtz-Klink in the annals of history:

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/scholtz-klink2.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERscholtz.htm
http://womanwarriors.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/gertrud-scholtz-klink-female-fuhrer-breathed-her-nazi-beliefs/
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/ScholtzKlinkGertrud/

Time is short, ladies.  Either speak up as real women asserting EVERY woman's right to consult her doctors without undue political interference or get ready to stand next to Gertie for all time according to the motto that Gertie, Gertie, Gertie was a hack, hack, hack.

Thank you, Ohio State Senators Tavares and Turner!

Thank you, Ohio State Senators Tavares and Turner, for standing up for Planned Parenthood in the Ohio Senate!

There is a perverse conceit among those subverting women's access to competent reproductive health care that only "right-to-lifers" stand up for defenseless life.  Does that conceit stem from ignorance and a willful lack of self-discipline to step back and look at each patient's clinical picture?  Does it stem from an obtuse arrogance that insists that those who do not share their sectarian beliefs have no morals and therefore cannot come to the conclusion to terminate a pregnancy in the "true" faith?  Or does it stem from a cynical opportunism to advance a "holy" cause in order to distract the chumps back home while the would-be crusaders sweep their own misdeeds and malfeasance at the statehouse under the carpet?  Whatever the motives, the doctrinaires of the 130th General Assembly have been feeding themselves a line of bull for so long that some of them actually have come to believe it.

Truly ethical medical practice demands that the entire medical team recognize, acknowledge, respect, and act according to the patient's medical reality, her socio-economic reality, her religious convictions, and her informed consent about her health care.

That real patients with real problems suffer gratuitous danger at the hands of interloping fanatics never quite registers with those out to defund Planned Parenthood at any cost -- as long as some other woman must pay the price.  What other mentality could possibly explain, for example, how so-called medics let Savita Halappanavar die last year just because she and her husband had made the mistake of moving to "a Catholic country"?  If you don't know already how or why Savita Halappanavar died, please DO READ:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20321741;
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Savita-Halappanavars-husbands-detailed-diary-of-days-leading-up-to-her-death-183769781.html;
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/savita-halappanavars-abortion-requests-missing-from-medical-file-16241442.html;
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2013/0118/1224329001402.html;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20405702;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20779631;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264608/Savita-Halappanavar-Husband-demands-answers-inquest.html;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/medics-treating-savita-halappanavar; http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/did-irish-catholic-law-or-malpractice-kill-savita-halappanavar).

Despite the malicious misinformation spread by some, Planned Parenthood does truly good work even when that work includes abortion (http://www.texasobserver.org/we-have-no-choice-one-womans-ordeal-with-texas-new-sonogram-law/).  But then, rolling up your sleeves, washing your hands physically instead of figuratively, and actually caring for real patients in real distress in sometimes dire circumstances doesn't leave much time to fend off sanctimonious grandstanding by medically unqualified lobbyists operating on murky finances.  When it comes to public policy, never mind that women serving in the United States military rife with rape must resort to reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood off base when they are denied it by law on base.  That's some thank-you-for-your-service-honey (http://www.demconvention.com/speech/cecile-richards; http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/05/24/senate-armed-services-committee-votes-to-end-military-ban-on-insurance-coverage-a;  http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/05/26/military-women-deserve-firstclass-treatment-secondclass-status).

I hope and pray that American women never fall prey to the kind of state-sponsored sanctimony that with utter disregard for her defenseless life and for no defensible reason put Savita Halappanavar into a coma and then an early grave  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/medics-treating-savita-halappanavar; http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/did-irish-catholic-law-or-malpractice-kill-savita-halappanavar).  Nevertheless, I fear that exactly that will happen in Ohio at the hands of the 130th General Assembly and the Kasich administration.  For all their dissembling about alternative vendors for Title X services, those spearheading the move to defund Planned Parenthood in the Ohio Senate know full well that they are putting other women at risk to receive substandard medical care (http://msmagazine.com/blog/2011/05/09/treatment-denied/).  That they are deadset to impose harebrained sectarian doctrines that violate the the truly ethical precept that the patient's needs come first is the price they're willing to let defenseless poor patients pay (unless, of course, those patients FINALLY get a clue politically and show up at the polls to vote next election day!)  If sabotaging access to competent care at the hands of qualified physicians and nurses means subjecting patients to indefensible risk, oh well, those women shouldn't have been struggling in the worst economy since the Great Depression and needing charity health care in the first place.  The social services policy expression of this mentality is that it's not the 130th General Assembly's problem if thousands of minors are living on the streets of Columbus (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/05/star-house-funding-still-kept-out-of-state-budget.html).  How else do you explain an Ohio General Assembly that kowtows to a career narcissist dangling her sentiments from a rented crop duster buzzing the Ohio statehouse on one hand and turns its back on its own youth on the other hand?

Does ANY member of the 130th General Assembly have a license to give any woman even a lousy manicure or a haircut?  Not one member of the 130th General Assembly has a license to practice medicine, yet too many have no compunction about committing medical malpractice by proxy as long as some defenseless woman, her family, and their caregivers suffer the consequences.  Maybe the 130th General Assembly should defer to the judgment of QUALIFIED physicians, especially those that have kept up to date with developments in their field (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/us/politics/rape-assertions-are-dismissed-by-health-experts.html; http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/get-involved/advisory-boards-and-initiatives/republicans-choice/goldwater-award/).  Unfortunately, too many members of the 130th General Assembly behave as if they wouldn't know the difference between a tongue depressor and a shoehorn if they fell over them, but, dang, those boys sure think they know enough to tell women and their doctors what to do in the examination room and the operating theater (http://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/News_Room/News_Releases/2013/Ob-Gyns_Issue_Policy_Opposing_Legislative_Interference; http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb1209858).

Based on the job performance of the 130th General Assembly and the Kasich administration to date, it's easy to write off poor and underemployed women when the politicians' own cushy jobs with health insurance benefits are safe in a gerrymandered state.  Then they can let Ohio's illustrious Lieutenant Governor and Director of Insurance tell all the lies and cavort for all the fundraisers of the party faithful she likes (http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/sep/19/mary-taylor/lt-gov-mary-taylor-says-obamacare-would-require-pu/).  The truth be told (for once), it ain't like they ever really wanted Ms. Taylor to get a handle on Medicaid expansion to care for all those babies born to Ohio women with no education and no jobs (That would be too much like right, not right wing:  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/12/group-state-must-act-fast-on-medicaid.html; http://wosu.org/2012/news/2013/06/12/senate-chief-medicaid-reform-not-part-of-budget/)  Obviously, the Republican Party in Ohio today could never attract, much less support, a candidate the caliber of Dr. Cox in Oklahoma (http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/get-involved/advisory-boards-and-initiatives/republicans-choice/goldwater-award/).  But then, the Ohio State Senate and the Kasich administration have far more lucrative fish to fry in this budget (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/05/senate-eases-campaign-giving-in-budget-bill-changes.html; http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/05/bill-signed-to-close-jobsohios-books.html).

Planned Parenthood has worked tirelessly for almost a century to get education, information, and contraceptives to women in the first place so that they would NOT have to resort to abortion in the second place.  None other than that archprogressive Richard M. Nixon (who once referred to himself as an empiricist) signed Title X into law.  Since then Planned Parenthood has consistently qualified for Title X funding not because they are politically connected and rigging the grant approval process, but because Planned Parenthood has delivered patients the best services for the lowest cost to taxpayers as determined in a nonpartisan review process required by federal law (http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/distribution-of-federal-family-planning-grants-in-ohio/).

Some argue that they do not want their tax dollars disbursed to organizations whose practices conflict with their religious doctrines.  Well, child sex abuse and international money laundering repulse me, yet I see no move in the Ohio General Assembly to defund organizations operating in Ohio that are affiliated with notorious chronic violators.  You have no idea what I'm talking about?  That's not surprising given the caliber and depth of international news reporting in Central Ohio (Please DO READ:
http://theweek.com/article/index/244595/is-the-vatican-bank-finally-fighting-money-laundering-for-real;
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/05/31/vatican-bank/;
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/europe/power-struggle-on-reforming-vatican-bank.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0;
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-bank-failed-to-act-on-money-laundering-7957000.html; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112159/Vatican-classed-likely-involved-money-laundering-Yemen-Algeria-North-Korea.html).

N.B.:  Planned Parenthood NEVER has used Title X funds for abortion services and ALWAYS has accounted for every penny they spend by law.  Please, somebody, do open the books of Ohio Right to Life!  Who has been funding them, and how and to whom exactly have they disbursed their funds these many years?  Oh, forgive me, I'm comparing apples with oranges.  Ohio Right to Life provides no bonafide medical, educational, or social services that I'm aware of.  Getting the real work done is Planned Parenthood's job.

Thank you, again, Ohio State Senators Tavares and Turner.