19. War on Women 3

We’ve spent the last 2 days talking about the government’s screening
mammography guidelines, but there’s one last thing I wanted to mention about
them:

We talked a couple weeks ago about the dangers of “evidence-based medicine”
and how it sounds great, but how it can hamper the development of new
technology. Well, after looking at a bunch of research studies, the government
mammography task force came to the conclusion that having doctors examine
their patients’ breasts for lumps actually causes more problems than it solves….in
fact, they even recommend that women not check their own breasts for cancer!!
So let me get this straight: a 40 year old woman is at risk for the most aggressive
breast cancers and is more likely to die of cancer if she has it, but she isn’t
supposed to get a mammogram, she’s not supposed to go to her doctor for a
breast exam, and she’s not supposed to examine her own breasts to see if she has
a lump. Exactly how are we supposed to find her cancer????

And why do we even need these government task forces? We have the American
Cancer Society, the Komen Foundation, multiple physician specialty societies…all
of whom review medical research to develop clinical practice guidelines that are
best for the patients. Maybe that’s the problem. These charity and professional
groups are acting on behalf of the patients, not the government…not on behalf of
society as a whole, the collective.

So Obamacare wants to protect our rights as women. Our rights to have an
abortion—for free; our right to be sterilized from the time of our first menstrual
period—for free; our right to get contraceptives if we decide not to be
sterilized—for free. Obamacare even gives others the right to help us to commit
suicide without penalty. But Obamacare will prevent us access to a life saving
mammogram. So they’re great at protecting my right not to create life. How
about my right to life?

(Note: This commentary is by Dr. Jill Vecchio.)