Letters to the Editor
-
The authoer herself points out...
...that abortion has a "unique" emotional component when compared with other surgical procedures.
Abortion should be handled differently from other surgical procedures because it is different, and causes people to behave differently.
A minor's parents will not refuse to allow her to get an appendectomy.
A minor's parents will not punish her for needing an appendectomy.
A minor's parent cannot cause her to need an appendectomy.
-
Surely you're kidding.
"I guess I'm a social conservative: I just don't think teenagers should be making decisions like this on their own, or that the government has the right to interfere with how families run themselves."
So to ensure that the government doesn't interfere with families ... you want the government to mandate that the government force family members to communicate in a different kind of way?
And while we're at it, no kidding we hope every minor who has an abortion has a "trusted family member or guardian" with her. Unfortunately, ensuring that minors in less than trusting, less than loving, or less than safe families have to tell their parents about this decision -- which could expose them to all kinds of things, including physical violence -- doesn't create trust. If a teenage girl isn't telling her parents that she has to have an abortion, forcing her to tell them is unlikely to engender trust.
-
There is some evidence
that parental notification laws actually increase the rate of minor abortions. If true, common sense would explain that many parents, when faced with their minor daughter's pregnancy, would counsel abortion, appreciating better than she the consequences of having and raising the child. Also, they would be better equipped to locate an abortion provider.
This strikes me as an issue that intelligent pro-choicers will not oppose as long as the requirements aren't too draconian. Existing abortion case law (Casey) puts the matter before state legislatures and will only intervene if states pass laws that constitute an "undue burden" on the woman's right. Therefore, the abortion battleground is in the legislative process at the state level. As such, in most cases, it is the voters who must be appealed to. Pro-choice people can further marginalize themselves very quickly by opposing parental notification laws. Most reasonable people think children should tell their parents about important things like pregnancy. Opposing that is a fight pro-choicers don't need to pick. They'll lose if they do.
On the other side of the coin, if pro-choice folks support parental notification, they will enhance their image with voters.
-
Oh and
one other thing.
I don't know about the CA law, but here in TX the parental notification law has a provision that allows a girl to bypass the law's requirement if she satisfies a judge that the parents can't be involved or, shouldn't be. I know attorneys who do that work pro bono and they think it works pretty well. I suspect the CA law has a similar provision.
-
Closing the barn door
If you want your teenager to tell you she's having an abortion raise her in a manner condusive to that degree of communication.
-
In case of parental notification...
Ms. So easily dismisses the 30% of those girls who do not notify parents or guardians for fear of physical injury. And, she takes at face value a study that theorizes, not proves, but theorizes a link between fear having to tell your parents you're pregnant and oral sex. Aside from the error that oral sex is safe (only from pregnancy, not from STD's), the idea that one emotion conquers another, that fear will vanquish irrationality overrides her own reasoning that regarding sex, people's "hearts rule their heads."
By the way Ms. So, it's not the brain that turns on the sex drive.
Morality and a happy family cannot be legislated or regulated, but health care can. Those girls who have parents they can talk to, will, those who don't will find some way to terminate a pregnancy or worse, dispose of the child. Protecting minors and preserving the family is the straw boogeyman that appears at every attempt to insert reality into the abortion discussion.
I'm not clear what Ms. So and the pro-notification/anti-abortion clan is protecting. If it were babies or women or girls, they would best spend their time demanding accurate sex education, safe havens for girls and women who carry pregnancies to term and schools and health care and all those things that are truely pro-life.
-
She didn't need parental notification to get pregnant
So you think girls should notify parents of an abortion, even though they don't need parental notification to become pregnant, a condition that is actually more physically dangerous than abortion?
If she's capable of getting pregnant and obtaining an abortion, she's capable of making the decision to not be pregnant, all by herself. I had a friend who was forced to carry a pregnancy at age 13, and give the baby up for adoption. She's been dealing with the trauma her whole life, and somehow, I think it was probably more traumatic for her than a first- or even second-trimester abortion would have been.
-
Judicial Bypass
I disagree. Parental notification laws can place a minor living in an abusive situation in danger. "Other repercussions" may seem broad, but the fear about such repercussions among teens is real. Other repercussions could mean being kicked out of the home, or being ostracized and emotionally abused. Whatever the "other repercussions" are, they can be devastating enough to force teens to hide their pregnancy, or perform an unsafe abortion on themselves. (Wire hangers, anyone?)
Some may argue that in such cases a minor has the option to obtain a judicial bypass. A judicial bypass is a Constitutionally mandated alternative, where you go in front of a judge, and tell him/her why you want an abortion, and s/he will determine if you're mature enough to make that decision.
After reading many family law cases in law school, I found many judges to be completely arbitrary in deciding whether a minor was sufficiently "mature" enough to make such a decision. They would often state that the minor was too young, and therefore not mature enough to make such a decision. No explanation was offered as to why he or she came to that conclusion. It was simply stated as fact. It was maddening to read such cases, and my heart broke for these young women.
My question is - if a young woman is not mature enough to decide whether to have an abortion, then how on earth is she mature enough to have a baby?