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From: Aaron Solomon
Date: 9/21/99
Time: 3:25:59 PM
Remote Name: 130.68.51.60
In the United States, Church and State are separated. This means that these public hospitals that are funded by the government cannot bring religious factors into their policies. A private doctor can refuse to perform any service to any patient he or she wants to, but when it is a public hospital funded by tax payers, it is the right of the patient to receive whatever services allowed by law she or he needs. This includes the administering of the morning after pill, birth control and abortion. In my mind, the practice of these Catholic hospitals is illegal and infringes on women's rights; especially their rights to their health and their lives. The victim of a rape should not have to bear and raise a child that was forced upon her by her rapist. Not only will being pregnant and raising this child constantly remind her of her rapist and the rape, therefore being harmful to her mental health, but she may not be prepared, financially nor mentally to bear and raise this child. This country is supposed to give its inhabitants the right to follow their own religious beliefs and practices, unless it infringes on another person's rights, so it should therefore be left unto the individual to decide what practices and beliefs to follow. If a rape victim believes in a religion where she is not supposed to get an abortion, and she wishes to follow that, then it is her choice and hers alone. That is unless she is a minor and still under her parent(s)' or guardian(s)' care; then they should be involved in any decision. Otherwise, it is unlawful for anyone to make this decision for her, a decision that affects her life, and not the life of some religious figure who declares her decision to be the wrong decision. That would be an infringement on her rights as a woman, as a person, and as an inhabitant of the United States.