When it’s convenient

I write to decry the obvious hypocrisy of some Republican members of the Arkansas Legislature. As a physician/pediatrician who has practiced in Arkansas for almost 40 years, I have become distressed how this hypocrisy has entered into the relationship between physician and patient (or patient’s parents), and how this political posturing has harmed this relationship and child health.

Republican legislators were all about parent freedom and choice when it came to wearing masks and receiving vaccines during the covid pandemic. Instead of supporting the recommendations of health care providers and public health leaders, these legislators focused on the parents’ authority to make choices and encouraged the parents to ignore the recommendations, apparently for political reasons. This undermined the authority of physicians, and as a result, too many children became ill, and even died.

Now we see these legislators intervening in the health care of a very small group of children/adolescents suffering from gender-identity issues. While supporting parent choice during the pandemic, now they seek to undermine and remove the authority of parents regarding the type of health care provided to their children by passing legislation which restricts this care. These restrictions will likely also result in harm to these children. What hypocrites! They are apparently all for parents’ authority only as long as it meets their political interest.

Legislators should have no authority or role to impact decisions that parents make with their health care providers unless it involves illegal activities. Passing legislation to make illegal the decisions that parents and these children make with their physicians removes the parents’ authority, which the Republican legislators claimed to be so important during the pandemic. At least these legislators should be consistent in supporting parent choice, and not just when it fits their political agendas.

PATRICK CASEY

Little Rock