BY JODY BENSON
Los Alamos
First, please read the bill. You will find it here:
I think Ms Fox may be mislead by the rather odd title: “Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act.” The Bill doesn’t mean that they’re going to tell your son he needs a sex change. The Bill is all about prohibiting the government from interfering with any gender-affirming healthcare from post-partem depression and menopause to the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The stipulated care includes psychological, behavioral, surgical, pharmaceutical, and medical. The bill stipulates that nobody can prevent you from getting the care you need.
This is a bill we all need to support. All the females out there, your daughters, your mothers, your wife—they will each, probably, eventually need some kind of birth control, prenatal and postpartum care; and, if necessary (hopefully never), managing a pregnancy loss, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive cancers—and yes, maybe one of your daughters will be among the 9000 nationwide every year who choose to change gender. The government will not be able to interfere with our healthcare needs.
Read the Bill. The “freedom” it talks about is freedom from government oversight of our bodies. The freedom it talks about is prohibiting government interference in the most intimate aspects of (primarily) women’s health, which is, in turn, family health. Worldwide, healthy women make healthy communities. I certainly support HB7. When you read the bill, I think you will, too.