At a cost of AUD $43.8 million (about USD $33 million) Victoria, Australia has rolled out an initiative to put “Doctors in Secondary Schools” as the program is called. The program will “fund general practitioners (GPs) to attend up to 100 Victorian government secondary schools up to one day a week to provide medical advice and health care to those students most in need.” While the concept of providing free medical care for in-need teens sounds great on the surface, it has been met with a storm of controversy, for multiple reasons.
First, it is seen as a way for the government to line the pockets of the big pharmaceutical companies. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife are connected to some of the biggest of all Big Pharma corporations. Mrs. Turnbull, chairs the pharmaceutical corporation Prima Biomed, meanwhile, the Prime Minister has pushed for government-mandated vaccinations. Secondly, many parents are concerned about their daughters being issued contraceptive pills at school without their knowledge or consent.
Thirdly, the wording of the program is also concerning to many parents. It mandates that even if a parent “expressly states” that they do not want their child to receive medical treatment from these doctors, the GP can go ahead and do so as long as he or she deems the child to be “mature enough.”
The program also promised to provide “primary health care” to these kids, but never clarifies what this health care will consist of. Will it include vaccinations? Will children whose parents object to vaccinations be given these shots anyway, without permission? The side-effects of vaccines can be very serious. Will children as young as 12 years of age be handed contraceptives, which would effectively give them the green light to start having sex.
And what about psych evaluations? Hormonal swings mean that teenagers are notoriously all over the place when it comes to their moods. Most parents are aware of this and monitor their kids carefully. That doesn’t mean that kids need to be given antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs to cope. Nonetheless, the number of children being handed prescriptions for these drugs has risen dramatically in the past few years, and the doctors in the Australian program are likely to follow the trend. This means that children could be given mind-altering drugs, which are known to cause suicidal behavior in teenagers without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Liberty is eroded by gradualism. One step away from personal freedom lays the foundation for another. The state takes more and more control over the personal lives of its citizens. Eventually, liberty is no more. Are we near that time?
A true Christian base his actions in the word of God, not in state law. If state law conflicts with a person’s understanding of God’s instructions for him, he must disobey the state and be true to his convictions.
“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:19.