By Brannon S. Howse
Liberals claim that America needs school-based clinics for children whose parents who cannot afford medical treatment, but this is a groundless argument. Nearly every state requires a student to have a physical exam before a child can enter school, and any parent—regardless of economic circumstances—can take his or her child to the doctor, thanks to both state and federal programs which provide medical treatment and examinations for underprivileged children.
The real motive behind encouraging school-based clinics is to foster the illicit sexual worldview of those who promote them. Already, the problem of school prerogative in student healthcare is out of control in some places. In Nebraska, for example, minor girls can be taken from school without their parent’s permission or knowledge by school officials to receive an abortion. Although schools cannot give a child an aspirin without a permission slip signed by the parent, school authorities can take her to an abortionist without parental consent or knowledge. Citizens in Nebraska are working to rectify this absurdity by making it illegal for school officials to take a minor to an abortion provider, but meanwhile, the illogic of the situation demonstrates the true motives behind school-based care. It’s not about student health but about the liberal agenda to “normalize” all manner of sexual behavior and to make sure the younger generation grows up feeling that any form of sexual deviancy is “OK.”
Liberals advocate for school-based clinics (SBC) where students receive everything from abortion counseling to contraceptives to forced genital exams. In March 1996 I received a phone call from concerned parents in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Knowing that I was the education reporter and periodic guest host of The Michael Reagan Show, these angry parents believed that if more people were aware of what had happened to their eleven- and twelve-year-old daughters their tragedy would not be repeated in another city or state. Let me explain what happened.
Katie and Paul Tucker, the parents of one child involved, told me that the girls coming out of the school nurse’s office were crying and telling the other girls standing in line in their underclothes, waiting their turn, that the nurse was performing genital exams. Many of the girls, including the Tuckers’ daughter, began to cry and requested to call their mothers. One or two girls attempted to climb out of the window in order to avoid the procedure. The Tuckers’ daughter was told to lie down on the table and stop fighting the nurse or they would call in school security to hold her down.
Upon confirming the details, I took the story to Michael Reagan, and that night we broke the story on his national radio show. For the next several days Mike and I reviewed the developing facts and national reaction to the abuse of these 59 little girls. I invited Katie and Paul Tucker to join the program by phone so listeners could hear the agony and righteous anger of one of the girls’ parents. I then contacted the Washington Times and invited one of their reporters to interview Katie and Paul Tucker about the East Stroudsburg incident and the national trend of school-based clinics where such activity would become commonplace. The Washington Times reported the story as follows:
[quote] [The girls] were marched to the school nurse’s office, ordered to take off their clothes and then examined by a female pediatrician. The girls were scared. They were crying and trying to run out the door, but one of the nurses was blocking the door so they couldn’t leave. “My daughter told the other nurse that, ‘My mother wouldn’t like this. I want to call her. And they said no.’ And my daughter said, ‘I don’t want this test to be done.’ And the nurse said, ‘too bad.’” [end quote]
A May 6, 1996, Washington Times article reported:
[quote] The physician reportedly put the girls in a room and had them lie down on a table, spread-eagle, with nothing covering them. In a fax received from the East Stroudsburg Area School District they claim that all parents were notified. Some of the parents admit that they were notified of the physical but there was absolutely no mention of any type of genital exam. According to The Rutherford Institute in a press release dated May 10th, 1996, “One girl’s parents even sent the permission slip back to the school denying it permission to examine their child—but the school examined her anyway. [end quote]
According to the March 22, 1996, issue of the Pocono Record newspaper, a community doctor commenting on the situation told the paper that, “Even a parent doesn’t have the right to say what’s appropriate for a physician to do when they’re doing an exam.”
Yes, parental authority is under assault.
After The Rutherford Institute sued on behalf of several of the girls and their families, justice to some degree was rendered:
[quote] U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo ruled….that the East Stroudsburg School District violated the Fourth Amendment rights of 59 6th grade girls…..The judge ruled that the exams constituted “unreasonable searches,” and said he “could not identify a compelling government reason to examine the genitals." [end quote]
Two days later, the jury returned a verdict against the district, awarding a total of $60,000 in damages, or $7,500 for each of the eight student plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The jury did not award damages to the parents. The physician who performed the exams reached an out-of-court settlement with the girl’s families.
When parents asked why the exams were done, some were told the school was looking for evidence of sexual abuse. The real abuse, of course, was exacted on the girls by those looking for evidence of sexual abuse.
Similar stories have been reported all over the nation and will only become more frequent as parental authority breaks down and school-based clinics become more commonplace. Attorney John Eldredge reveals yet another tragic story involving young girls victimized by school counselors and abortion doctors:
[quote] Abortion has been one of the most emotionally charged issues in America since it was legalized in 1973. While it may be legal, not everything that is legal is moral, and abortion is clearly immoral. We have a tendency to forget that the statistics we read in our newspapers and the reports we hear on the nightly news represent the lives of real people.
Numbers like 1.6 million abortions every year can be overwhelming. For many of us, figures like these are too much to comprehend. Perhaps we can relate to one woman and one child whose life is in question. Rachel was 17 when she learned she was pregnant. Her high school counselor recommended she have an abortion and arranged for state funding and recommended a particular abortion clinic. No other alternatives were discussed. Rachel was afraid to tell her parents that she had become pregnant. Unaware of any alternatives, she consented to the abortion.
Several days later she developed flu-like symptoms in her chest. She went to her family doctor, but she did not tell him about the abortion because she did not think the symptoms were related. Sometime later, Rachel became so sick her father took her to a local hospital. The next morning she was found in a comatose condition.
Subsequently, it was discovered that she had developed bacterial endocarditis — a condition directly attributable to a post-abortion surgical infection. The bacterial endocarditis had caused blood clots to develop and become lodged in the vascular system of her brain, causing a stroke. When Rachel recovered from her coma, she was left permanently wheelchair-bound. Why was it not required by law that her parents know before the procedure ever happened?
Rachel’s story is not uncommon, although the consequences for her were particularly extreme. Consider also the millions of women and girls who undergo deep physical and emotional distress as a result of abortion. Add to that all of the butchered children who if allowed to live would have been starting kindergarten this year, or playing on the varsity team, or going off to college, but were never given a chance. [end quote]
With school-based clinics, the only winners are groups like Planned Parenthood and others that that despise parental authority and a Biblical worldview.
Copyright 2006 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.
