Poll: It's just another attack on choice.

There's a parental notification law on the ballot in California. It requires a physician to give 48 hour notice to a parent or guardian in the case of an unemancipated minor requesting an abortion. It doesn't let the parent stop it, at least not directly. What do you think?

That poll didn't come out right at all... "It's just another attack on choice" was supposed to be a poll option. D'oh!

Hrm, while I don't think there should be laws regarding abortion (one way or another), given that we're talking about a minor here, I can see why there is a push for this since minor children are still the responsibility of the parent/guardian.

Seems to me though, this would just cause a minor child that is intent on getting an abortion to turn to a black market approach rather than a safer procedure done by a licensed physician.

Exactly.

Like many laws... all it'll do is cause more "behind the scenes" activity to happen.

i also have sympathy for the point of view that the parents should be informed.... on the other hand, saying "but the parents won't be allowed to prevent it" is pretty naive. when it comes to minors, parents can prevent any number of things, whether the law says so or no. this might indeed lead to less safe routes taken.

Also . . . . what about in cases of rape/incest? What if a 14-year old girl was raped by her father? Should we make her go to him to get permission to abort his child/grandchild? This is, unfortunately, not an unlikely situation.

What I really want to vote for is "It sounds reasonable but the world isn't that simple so on balance it isn't a good thing."

Also . . some kids are estranged from their parents, or are living on their own, or have abusive parents. As everyone knows, not everyone has responsible parents who could handle the situation reasonably. Too many kids are actually more responsible than their own parents, and can't turn to them for help, let alone permission, when they need an abortion.

One of my concerns is that even though there is a provision for the minor to go before a judge to satisfy the notification requirement, they must convince the judge that "by clear and convincing evidence the minor is sufficiently mature and well-informed to decide whether to have an abortion," but doesn't define what constitutes that evidence. Is a 17 year old with a job mature enough? What is the definition of well informed - do they have to cite statistics? (which show that surgical abortion is 8x safer than childbearing, BTW. I don't have stats on medical abortion.)

The text of the initative can be found here.

I don't have a daughter right now (though I do have a son), but if I did, and she was in some sort of trouble, but felt too embarrased to come to me for help, and so tried to do something like this without my knowledge, I would be really upset.

My child is my responsibility, and even if, in the end, a decision was made to go ahead with it, I would want to know ahead of time so I could help her and love her and be there for her. I have made colossal mistakes in my life, and while it's never easy to tell parents, but still works out better in the end.

I can see from the perspective of a child without a loving parent, but it's a hard line to draw.

What about parental notification after the fact? That way the parent could support the child dealing with any post-abortion issues, but notification doesn't become an obstacle, which is really the issue here. The bill provides for legal recourse if someone tries to force a minor to have an abortion (which is illegal anyway - you can't perform a medical procedure on someone without their consent), but no recourse for a minor who wants to get an abortion but is being blocked by the parent. In California, a minor has a legal right to an abortion even in the face of the parents' objection - this bill is trying to get around that.

Becky Bell was in high school in 1988 when she became pregnant. She wanted to have an abortion, but under Indiana law she needed permission of 1 parent. But she didn't want to tell her parents. She didn't want to go before a judge. She died of an illegal abortion.

I met Becky's parents at a rally when I was a teenager. They weren't abusive to her, she wasn't estranged. They seemed just like my mom and dad. It made a pretty huge impression on me.

Karen, Becky's mom, writes:

People ask me what I would have done if Becky had told me the truth. I would have been mad, and I would have said, 'Becky, you just ruined your life. What are the neighbors going to think?' That would have been my first reaction because that's who I am. But then I would have asked her, 'Beck, do you want to get married? Have a baby? Have an abortion? What do you want? What can you live with, hon?' We would have worked it out. But I never got the chance.

Karen Bell's story