Amendment 14 and The Right to Choose and the Affordable Health Care Act

Amendment 14, the Right to Privacy, Roe vs. Wade and the Affordable Health Care Law

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

This is the Amendment used to guarantee the freedom of the slaves given by the 13^th Amendment because Congressional leaders were well aware of the bias that existed in the South after the Civil War and wanted to make sure the freed slaves would remain free. This Amendment was disregarded by the establishment of what were known as the Jim Crow Laws that kept African Americans in bondage for 100 years after the end of the Civil War. In a case challenging the segregation laws that came before the Supreme Court in 1898 (Plessey vs. Ferguson) the biased Supreme Court kept the African American population of the South in bondage for over fifty years by declaring segregation Constitutional in the “separate but equal clause.”

Only massive civil rights protests and years of violence and riots put an end to this “final word on segregation” from 1898.

In 1971 the Supreme Court overturned state abortion laws giving females the “right to choose what happened to their bodies” by using the 14^th Amendment in the famous (or infamous) Roe vs. Wade Decision. I was a woman of child bearing age at that time and was am still am dedicated to the principle of pro-choice. But, unlike most of my female counterparts today, I am still dedicated to the principle of choice when it comes to any issues surrounding any medical procedures that invade my right to choose what goes into my body.

 I am opposed to and have rejected any medical treatment that debilitates my body in any way or destroys my God given immune system which is my best treatment against disease. For that reason, I have rejected insurance that covers invasive procedures such as x-rays, mammograms, Pabst smears, unnecessary surgeries, radiation or poisonous chemo-therapies as well as any drugs including over the counter drugs. I have treated all my illnesses since 2003 when I was without insurance with alternative treatments and visits to naturopaths who have helped me with diet and exercise as the best treatments to prevent autoimmune disorders, arthritis and diabetes. I have maintained accident insurance and hospitalization insurance but I have a living will with strict orders about treatments I refuse to accept to maintain my life when I am terminally ill. With the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act I am now told that I must register with a nationally controlled web site and turn over all kinds of private information about my body and its functioning and then I must purchase insurance to pay for the above mentioned treatments I do not want to use or pay a tax penalty. It is my belief that the same Amendment that protected a female’s right to choose in 1971 will protect my right to choose in 2014. Therefore, I am choosing to opt out of this program and if forced to will challenge the Law in the federal courts of the United States the way Roe did in 1971. It is my right and no one has the right to impinge upon the rights of others, especially after they have been members of disenfranchised groups that have fought to gain their rights under the law. You can’t have it both ways in a free country. You cannot use your rights to step on my rights. It doesn’t work that way.