If women's health is important, clinics must beem standards
Cathie Humbarger’s recent guest column argued that abortion facilities are not held to the same standards as other businesses.
I am concerned about this. I cannot imagine an abortion clinic would not be held to the same standards as any other outpatient surgery center. What would happen if Parkview or Lutheran did not have handicapped accessibility at one of their health care facilities or if they did not assist patients by wheelchair after surgery?
Surely the law will be applied equally now that it has been brought to the Department of Justice’s attention the clinic does not have handicapped access to both allow women with special needs to access the building and provide women with safe and comfortable escort post-surgery.
I also cannot imagine anyone would advocate against post-abortive women receiving the same quality of treatment as women at any other health care facility.
Something should be done if we are as concerned as we say we are about women’s health. The Department of Justice cannot overlook an abortion clinic adhering to ADA compliance, especially when the well-being of women is at stake.
Amanda Hubartt
Indiana needs to opt out of Common Core
The Aug. 1 article about Dick Morris’ appearance in Fort Wayne failed to mention one of the most interesting moments in the evening. It occurred when a member of the audience asked him about the Common Core, and he admitted he really didn’t know much about it and was going to look into it.
Morris and other organizations, such as Americans for Prosperity, who are actively promoting vouchers, have a responsibility to take the time to investigate the Common Core. What they will find is that the Common Core state standards and the federally funded assessments that accompany it, are the antitheses of the promises made by the school choice movement.
Here in Indiana, voucher or no voucher, the “choices” parents have will soon be narrowed down to only one — the Common Core. Anyone wondering why Indiana’s adoption of Common Core’s “one-size-fits all” system of national standards, curriculum and testing flies in the face of school choice need only Google the document “Closing the Door on Innovation,” which was signed by The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice’s president, Robert Enlow, among others.
Legislators in Indiana should follow states like Texas, Virginia and Alaska, and pass Sen. Scott Schneider’s legislation to opt Indiana out of the Common Core initiative. If they don’t, the Common Core will certainly be the attached strings that sink the voucher movement, private and parochial school and ultimately even home-schooling as well.
Melissa R. Smith
