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Welcome to Alabama, where our Republican lawmakers will force a 12-year-old to carry a pregnancy stemming from rape to term but don’t believe 17-year-olds are mature enough to make their own medical decisions.
You read that correctly. And it’s not hyperbole.
During the ongoing debates over Alabama’s draconian abortion ban, which doesn’t include exemptions for rape or incest, numerous opponents of the ban have pointed to the very real fact that multiple times each year, child welfare officials encounter children as young as 12 (and possibly younger) who are pregnant. In almost every case, the victim has become pregnant as a result of incest.
Tough, the state of Alabama has said. That kid is old enough to become a mother.
But a 17-year-old going through a rough stretch and looking for a trained professional to discuss mental health issues and options?
Oh, no. That young ‘un needs his parents to give consent.
At least, that will be the case should a bill proposed by everyone’s favorite worst doctor and state senator, Larry Stutts, becomes law.
Stutts, you might recall, is the same guy who tried a few years ago to slide past his colleagues a bill that would have repealed a law requiring insurance companies to cover a minimum two-night hospital stay for women post child birth. He failed to inform his colleagues that the law was put in place after one of his patients died, and he was sued, because she was forced to leave the hospital too soon when the insurance company wouldn’t cover the additional night stay.
In that same bill was a repeal of a requirement that doctors send notices to patients when dense breast tissue – often a warning sign of increased breast cancer chances – appear on a mammogram.
So, the guy has a history.
With his latest, SB101, he basically guarantees that minors won’t seek substance abuse treatment or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and likely ends any hope that they’ll seek out guidance from counselors when suffering from anxiety or depression.
Because under Stutts’ bill, he raises the age of consent for medical treatment, including mental health services, from 14 to 18. There are exceptions for those who are married, divorced, pregnant, a high school graduate or emancipated from their parents. There is also an exception for imminent threats, abuse and the possibility of self harm.
But for everything else – before a counselor can speak to a minor about the anxiousness that’s driving down their grades or answer questions about sexually transmitted diseases – the counselor must receive consent from a legal guardian or parent. In addition, according to the bill, regardless of circumstances, the parents would always be granted access to their child’s medical records.
It’s hard to overstate the chilling effect that would have on minors seeking medical care after contracting a sexually transmitted disease or seeking help for a substance addiction.
When those situations were posed to Stutts by al.com, he responded with the sort of deep, well reasoned logic we’ve come to expect: “I mean, I guess there’s that possibility,” Stutts said.
He later added that it would help with treatment in most cases if family members were involved and supportive. And that’s true. But it’s also the biggest flaw with all of this.
Not everyone has a good family. Or good parents.
In a lot of cases, particularly where substance abuse is present at such a young age, there are many, many issues for these kids at home. The goal of the original law, which placed the cutoff at age 14, was to ensure that the minors talked to someone trained to help them through a difficult situation.
But then, that was before Republicans learned that they grab cheap votes by playing up this ridiculous “parental rights” nonsense, where they pretend that there’s no such thing as a bad or absent parent but that there are apparently lots of ill-intentioned counselors, school teachers and doctors out there.
With the mental health issues we have all across this state, and across this country, we should be doing everything within our power to get kids to talk to anyone at any time about any adverse emotions they’re feeling. In a state with one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies among teens, we should be running state-sponsored ads for the benefits of consulting trained medical professionals.
And if we actually wanted to protect kids, we would figure out a way to shield them from the stupid decisions made by Alabama lawmakers.
