When Abortion Rights Are Restricted, Gruesome, Gosnell-Style Black Markets Arise
The fight against government intrusion into medicine is often focused on issues relating to insurance. However, the scope of this battle extends much further. One such arena, which many are unable to see as part of the march towards government control of medicine, is restrictions on abortion.
In recent years certain states have enacted laws that proscribe the ability of a physician to offer abortions. Designed to limit the availability of abortion by erecting onerous regulations with which physicians must comply, these laws amount to the government dictating how medicine should be provided. However, removing restrictions on abortion does not equate to forcing taxpayers to fund the procedure just as they should not be forced to pay for anyones other healthcare needs.
The federal Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003 is an example of a federal level restriction. However, the bulk of onerous restrictions are at the state level and include laws that limit the time frame in which an abortion can be performed, mandatory counseling laws, mandatory waiting periods, and ultrasound requirements. In my own state of Pennsylvania, abortion providers are regulated to the point to which they must meet specific parking lot and elevator requirements. In North Dakota, a physician cannot even provide an abortion if the fetus is afflicted with a genetic defect such as Down Syndrome.
Because the medical service in question is abortion, with the associated religion-based opposition to its legality, advocates of a free market in medicine often do not view restrictions on abortion as interfering with the operation of capitalism via a fascist model of healthcare. However, because abortion is a right, the governments circumscription of it is tantamount to nullification of that right and a physicians right to practice medicine is similarly curtailed.
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/ameshadalja/2013/05/08/when-abortion-rights-are-restricted-gruesome-gosnell-style-black-markets-arise/