Would H.R.20: Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act Mandate Mothers’ Mental Health Tests?
H.R.20: Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act passed this week in the House of Representatives and is headed to the Senate.
Many people fear H.R.20 would require that all mothers would be screened for postpartum depression shortly after the birth of their child. The screening could consist of a list of questions designed to see if a mother is fit to take her newborn child home from the hospital, but what exactly would be asked in this multiple choice questionnaire and would it be mandated?
The Health Freedom Alliance explains:
The bill authorizes health care workers to screen mothers for post partum depression and offer them “help” in dealing with and overcoming it. A scenario is easily developed where a family is denied the ability to take their child home after a hospital birth because a mother failed to answer a series of subjective questions on a multiple choice test correctly. Or even worse chose not to vaccinate their new born with deadly toxins. Of course, that denial to take your baby home can be overcome if you just take this little pill here and agree to in home monitoring until you are pronounced OK. Think on this: Do you have any idea how hard it is to be declared sane after being declared unsane?
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Postpartum depression is a serious illness that affects 12 to 20 percent of women, especially teenage mothers, mothers with less education, and those with a history of depression. Would a screening questionnaire given before a mother left the hospital really be effective? How quickly do the effects of postpartum depression show up?
H.R.20 was first introduced in 2007. It was reintroduced in January of this year. Like many bills, it is well intentioned: “To provide for research on, and services for individuals with, postpartum depression and psychosis,” but would it mandate mental health screenings? In reading the text of H.R.20, I find nothing about mandate screening. The Mothers Act does include, “(3) The development of improved screening and diagnostic techniques,” but nothing about mandated screenings. I think the fear lies in the section on grant recipients:
(b) Certain Activities- To the extent practicable and appropriate, the Secretary shall ensure that projects funded under subsection (a) provide education and services with respect to the diagnosis and management of postpartum conditions. The Secretary may allow such projects to include the following…‘(4) Providing education to new mothers and, as appropriate, their families about postpartum conditions to promote earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Would grantees be required to screen all new mothers they serve? Is that where the fear and paranoia are coming from?
If screening simply involves looking over a mother’s previous mental health history to see if she has experienced depression before and then providing her with support, then I see no harm. If all mothers are screened with a tool that considers choices not to vaccinate as a sign of mental health, then many of us are in trouble, however, H.R. 20 itself does not mandate such screening in all hospitals across the US.
Image: iandeth on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
how about the fact that ppd doesn’t usually come to light until about 2 weeks after brith… this screen would fail 95% of the time. or how about the fact that health and human services doesn’t have enough people to follow the current issues or that dcfs can’t manage it’s own work load. it wouldn’t pass.
Even though we got the langauge removed from the bill from last year that stated all mothers would be screened, this bill is still incredibly dangerous. Please see:
http://tinyurl.com/newfaxstopMA
http://tinyurl.com/IndiVid
http://tinyurl.com/StopTheMA
http://tinyurl.com/inmemMatthew
http://tinyurl.com/AmyPhilo
This is the psychiatric industry partnered with corrupt members and agencies of govt and the soulless drugs companies which are sure to hook more innocent people on their drugs. These people are pure evil let their be no mistake about it.
These people know their product causes damage yet they still push it out because BILLIONS is being made. They are pure evil and they will be stopped. There is an awakening happening and people are getting angrier and angrier. It’s going to get very ugly for these criminals very soon. At the end of this I only see shame on the family’s of the guilty.
As a justice major at EKU I have to ask that if they if they make these screenings apart of prenatal care then what would happen if you refuse to consent on the psych screening? The reason i say this is because it could easily be interpreted as not getting proper care, thus giving the state to the authority to intervene (they could lock you up and take your kids).
P.S. And in response to Debbie: Yes it was a man that came up with this, his wife suffered from PPD so he had her medicated, institutionalized, electrocuted and then she killed herself.
This bill is outrageous! To mandate a “screening” for PPD and refuse to let the Mother take her child home if she does not comply is government intruding into personal lives! What are they going to do next, mandate that a new Mom recieves some kind of anti-fertility drug after she gives birth to her first child? Or that an infant must recieve the birth dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine before the parents can take the baby home?! This is pure evil!