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We’re the good guys. We’re the ones who love our kids and care desperately about their health and emotional well-being.
Which is why a lot of us still can’t get our minds around the idea our teen daughters can get an abortion without our knowledge or consent. It’s truly staggering.
Parents have been shaking their heads over this one for years, especially since 1997, when the California Supreme Court struck down a never-implemented state law requiring parental consent for an abortion. The court decided the law was an invasion of our children’s’ privacy.
In other words, it’s none of our business.
It is, of course, every bit our business, which is why Proposition 73, the Parents’ Right to Know and Child Protection Initiative, is on the ballot in the special election this November.
The proposition is a constitutional amendment that would require a parent or guardian be notified at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed on a minor daughter.
The measure doesn’t deny the minor access to abortions, mind you. It just keeps parents in the loop.
Pro-abortion rights groups like Planned Parenthood, NARAL-Pro-Choice California and the ACLU, whose hands get sweaty at the thought of ANY restrictions in regard to abortion, say the measure is a “dangerous” government mandate that puts young teens in jeopardy by “placing barriers between them and safe medical care.”
Dangerous? Parental involvement? During a time when a young girl needs information and counsel the most?
Opponents of Prop. 73 say the measure does a disservice to teens who can’t or won’t talk to their parents for fear of being kicked out of the home or beaten or worse.
John Dragoun, former director of the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center, which is anti-abortion rights, said those fears are generally unfounded.
“Most girls say something like ‘My parents are going to kill me,’” he said. “We hear it all the time, but in my 15 years as director, I never heard of that actually happening.”
Dragoun said the primary reason many young women choose abortions has more to do with support issues than shame or inconvenience.
“One of the things these girls often tell us is if they’d had someone close to them come along side them, they may have made a different choice,” he said.
In cases where a threat does exist, where girls have been abused or neglected, the measure allows minors to seek a judicial waiver. Exceptions are allowed in cases of medical emergencies as well.
Abortion is significant surgery, a life-ending choice. It is indefensible for government to deprive teen girls of parental protection, counsel and support during what is probably the most traumatic time of their lives.
The latest national survey by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found 73 percent of Americans favor requiring minors to get parental consent before being allowed to get an abortion. But California polls show a nearly even split among voters.
This one is going to be close, parents. Our underage teens can’t get their ears pierced, enter a tanning booth or accept an aspirin from the school nurse without our say so. Why is abortion the exception to a very good rule?
Marylee Shrider’s column appears Tuesdays and Saturdays. For comments or questions please contact her at mshrider@bakersfield.com or leave a voicemail at 395-7474.