Letter: Senator should prove prenatal care claim

Friday, May 11, 2007 | 7:26 a.m.

State Sen. Barbara Cegavske's flippant, judgmental, dismissive remark about prenatal care doesn't fly with me at all and must not go unchallenged.

A May 9 story in the Las Vegas Sun, regarding a joint Assembly-Senate committee hearing about a program to give prenatal care to 1,000 women who don't have health insurance, included her remarks. She said that she had talked to obstetricians who told her "the women don't want prenatal care even if it was available," and that the doctors "are not seeing the type of person taking care of themselves, let alone the baby."

Since she is an elected official with the power of the vote, I say: "Prove it."

How many doctors has she spoken with? What was the tone of the conversation? How many women are we talking about? Were the women counseled about the importance of prenatal care? What were the circumstances, the tone, the nature of the encounter with the patient?

If, in fact, there is even a hint of such a problem, then health care providers have a tremendous challenge ahead to reverse such an attitude, rather than to shrug their shoulders and say, "Oh well, no point in doing anything."

Patricia van Betten, Blue Diamond