Opposition to the Blunt Amendment- ARGH!

[Guest guest]

This is the link to a letter that my professional organization has signed on to. Can someone please comment on it more intelligently than I did?! I am so mad I could spit nails! http://www.midwife.org/ACNM/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000001964/Blunt%20Amendment%20Letter%20Feb%202012.pdfMy Response to them:

I am **SO UPSET** right now. I am

furious.

The last time I checked, the ACNM was a membership based organization, and as

such should consult the membership when making decisions to endorse letters

that ARE IN OPPOSITION to the beliefs of many of its members.

Our membership is composed of many women (and men) of faith- OF MANY DIFFERENT

BELIEF SYSTEMS. Almost unanimously, throughout the United States, leadership

from the Catholic Church, Jewish Church, Orthodox Church, Baptist Church,

Evangelical Church, and many other religious/faith based organizations have

voiced opposition to the recent HHS mandate - thought by most of us to be

unconstitutional, that would require virtually every person and organization,

whether religious or not to provide services and insurance against their belief

systems, ie trying to dictate if people would be allowed to follow their faith

or not.

For me as an employer - it would mean that regardless of my faith, I would be

forced to provide services which are against the tenents of my faith; and ALSO

be forced to provide insurance to myself and my employees that would also

violate my faith. The Blunt Amendment would protect me, my clients, and my

employees from having to do or participate in things that go against our faith.

And just to be clear, I take care of anyone- regardless of what their belief

system is. My employees, my previous employers, and my clients all know, are

aware of, and are respectful of what I believe.

According to the news brief I received, ACNM made the decision to endorse the

letter opposing the Blunt Amendment, supposedly in light of the Reproductive

Choices position statement, which very clearly states ACNM and its members have

"respect for human dignity and cultural variations. The philosophy of the

ACNM supports each person's right to self-determination, access to

com-prehensive health information, and to active participation in all aspects

of their health care. We acknowledge the wide range of cultural, religious and

ethnic diversity of CNMs/CMs and their clients allowing for a variety of

personal and professional choices related to reproductive health care."

ACNM *IS NOT* respecting any part of MY human dignity, or cultural variation-

nor is the endorsement of this opposition letter "allowing for a variety

of personal and professional choices related to reproductive health care".

As as Lifetime Member of ACNM, I want to make sure the organization has the

interests of ALL of it's membership in mind.

And in case some of you might think we should be required to provide every

service we are capable of- then I better see EVERYONE of you CNM's/CM's provide

EVERY TYPE OF SERVICE they have been trained for. That means if you are

teaching and not providing patient care, then forget that. If you are only providing

GYN care, then forget that. If you are only proving Obstetrical care, or only

antepartum care, or if you only deliver babies in one place,...well- you can

just forget all that too. We all have our different needs and preferences, for

different reasons. I don't provide certain services for faith based reasons. I

don't want the government telling me what type of care to provide (within our

training and licensure), and neither should ANY of you.

Shame on you ACNM. Sandrock, RNC-OB, APRN-CNM, MSN