Unknown to most of the country, the Supreme Court of these United States has already injected itself into the healthcare debate… way back in the early 1970’s.  Fortunately for the court, several years earlier it was discovered, that somewhere under the penumbras, and a little to the left of and somewhere slightly behind the emanations of the Constitution,  there was a right to privacy.  This discovery was leveraged by the court in the early 1970’s to include a nearly unfettered right to a particular medical procedure.  This procedure was called abortion.  Those on the left celebrated the “right” to “terminate” an unborn child.  A woman’s choice to have an abortion was protected as a private decision between her and her doctor.  They had rallies, chanted slogans, and waved signs.  They exercised their new-found “right” loud and long, for they were certain that they knew better than everyone else that their way was truly well and just.  It had to be, the Supreme Court had said so.  The court had expansively interpreted their liberty to do as they pleased.  And so they did.  Millions of times.

And now, it is the 21st Century.  Yes, we still hear those on the left celebrating.  They control all the levers of National Political Power.  And once again, they have determined that they know better than the rest of us.  Not content with merely having the right to determine the healthcare for unborn children, they want to determine healthcare for everyone.  They don’t say it like that, exactly.  They prefer the term “single-payer”.  Or perhaps, “Healthcare Co-Op”, or “Public Option”, the latter being single-payer on the installment plan.  Of course, they have no intention of consulting the Constitution, with it’s now-enshrined  right to privacy.  Because it is possible, just possible, that somewhere else under the penumbras, and a little to the right and slightly behind the emanations, lay the seeds of the destruction of their single-payer hopes and dreams.

And so, speaking for millions who never got the chance to speak, and speaking for millions who are denied the opportunity to be heard by their cowardly elected representatives, and speaking for the millions who want nothing more from their government than to be left largely alone, we hereby officially purloin your famous slogan:

Keep your laws off my body!

I want no part of your healthcare system that operates with all the customer friendliness of the IRS, the cost-conciousness of the Pentagon, and the timeliness of  Huricane Katrina relief.

Keep your laws off my body!

I want no part of a system that seeks to confiscate the labor of doctors and nurses, and the equipment and infrastructure of hospitals and clinics, to be re-distributed in a manner that bureaucrats deem most politically expedient.

Keep your laws off my body!

I want a system that respects my choice of medical care as a private decision between me and my doctor. I want a system that expands my liberty, expands my choices, and doesn’t require forced contributions from others to pay for my care.  I don’t want a system that reduces my options to whatever a bureaucrat will allow, or fines me if I choose to carry no health care insurance at all.  And I don’t want a system that seeks to eliminate private charity and philanthropy.  The donation of personal time by health care workers, and personal funds by those who can easily (and often not so easily!) afford it has made the American health care system the best in the world.  Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water!

Assuming, of course,  that you actually chose to deliver your baby.