Parental notification laws, where a minor is required to notify a parent before obtaining an abortion, are pretty popular. Most states have some form of them, requiring either that parents be given a heads-up first or that they are the ones to consent to the procedure. And it makes sense that voters would feel so strongly about these laws: pro-life or pro-abortion, most parents don’t want their children getting a medical procedure of any kind done without their knowledge and consent.
Minors, almost anywhere in the country, are extremely restricted with what they can do on their own. They can’t get their ears pierced, get a tattoo, or even go to a tanning bed without a parent’s approval first. Considering all that, it makes sense that parental notification/consent laws usually enjoy widespread voter support.
But for some reason, the abortion industry just cannot abide by them. They want your minor children to be able to come to them for abortions without you ever even knowing. A child can’t even go to the dentist without the parent’s approval, but getting an abortion, where a child will be a killed and the minor’s life will be at risk? Totally cool!
The latest group seeking to circumvent the wishes of parents and voters is Planned Parenthood of Montana, which recently filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn two pairs of parental notification laws.
The lawsuit filed in state District Court in Helena targets two recently passed laws:
• One passed by Montana voters in 2012 requiring any girl under 16 to notify a parent before obtaining an abortion. The law, passed as a referendum placed on the ballot by the 2011 Legislature, took effect in January. It passed with 70.5 percent of the voters in favor.
• A bill passed by the 2013 Legislature that would supersede the current law, requiring all girls under 18 to get notarized parental consent before having an abortion. The law is scheduled to take effect July 1.
The suit asked District Judge Mike Menahan to block enforcement of the second law as of July 1 and void both of them as unconstitutional.
Who cares that an overwhelming majority of voters approved the first law? Planned Parenthood doesn’t like it, so by golly, it needs to be gone. It’s not like Planned Parenthood has a history of putting girls at risk by violating statutory rape laws, or giving them inaccurate medical information. Oh, wait…
As per usual, the people at Planned Parenthood like to pretend that they want to overturn these bills for the good of the minor. They’re just a bunch of bighearted, caring folks looking out for the best interests of young girls everywhere, who might not be able to get an abortion because their parents are, like, abusive and stuff. Except, er, there are already judicial waivers present to avoid that very issue. Whoops. So what excuse do they really have, beyond that they want more young girls having abortions without their parents knowing about it, or caring about parental authority?
There is literally no other medical procedure that a minor can consent to on her own. Abortion is a purely elective procedure – a 16-year-old couldn’t decide to get breast implants without her parent’s permission first, or liposuction, or even non-elective procedures like, say, undergoing chemotherapy to treat cancer. Why, then, is abortion expected to be so different?
There is a reason why teenagers are not allowed to make virtually any major life decisions on their own. They are literally incapable of making long-term decisions and weighing risks the way adults are. Their brains are not formed for it yet. A teenager is not likely to know that she could be sending herself off to be butchered (just ask any number of LeRoy Carhart’s patients – or rather, their surviving families). A teenager is not likely to take the time to research fetal development and find out that the baby’s heart is already beating, or that he already has little fingers and toes.
A teenager is not likely to explore all of her options, like adoption or getting help in order to keep the baby through any number of charitable organizations, before going through with an irreversible action that, for many women, will haunt them the rest of their lives. This is why parental notification laws are needed, and are so popular. Voters like them. Parents like them. But scared teenage girls can bring in a lot of money to abortion centers, so who cares?
The only people against parental notification laws, it turns out, are pro-abortion radicals, to whom abortion is so sacred that nothing must stand in the way – not even common sense.
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