Because It's Scary

On Thursday a federal judge in Manhattan, Richard Casey, order New York Presbyterian Hospital to turn over the records of abortions performed there on the grounds that, according to The New York Times, "the disclosure would not unduly harm the hospital or the privacy of its patients."

Casey, again according to the Times, "rejected the hospital's argument that turning over the records would be an 'undue burden' and could prompt 'anger and mistrust of its patients, and damage to its reputation.'"

As a patient at Cornell, I plan to write Judge Casey and let him know that this ruling certainly has prompted anger and mistrust. When I see a doctor, I want to know that my care is paramount, and the knowledge that my doctor may not want to perform a specific procedure for fear of coming under attack by Big Brother Bush is far from comforting.

If you would like to do the same, please send your letters to:

Hon. Richard Conway Casey
United States District Judge
Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street, Room 1350
New York, New York 10007-1312

Comments

[Karen]

Holy Fuck.

This scares the shit out of me. What's next? A database of infertile patients? (And I know that's been talked about, too.)

I'm a patient at Cornell, too...small world.

[Karen]

Oh yeah. What are they going to do with these records? Did they say anything about that?

*shudder*

[Lisa]

This is part of Ashcroft's partial-birth abortion craziness (here's an interesting article about it from the Village Voice before Thursday's decision: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/vv/20040315/lo_vv/51671) It really does scare the shit of me.

[JJ]

What the heck is going on down there?

Is just so wrong. And scary. Just plain scary!

[Jodi]

Last night, my husband and I went to an open aired mall to get ice cream. We took one of our four dogs with us, who sat on my husband's lap while we licked our ice cream cones in public.

On a serious note, the thought that this man (and the Bush administration) is pushing to create a registry for children born through ART scares me to death. Why would they need to keep track of these children?