New Mexico Alliance for Life (NMAFL) sent out an email this week noting the defeat of HB 56, the Parental Notification of Abortion Act, by abortion defenders on the New Mexico House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. New Mexico is one of the few states to offer late-term abortion. The bill would have required parental notification 48 hours before a minor could have an abortion, with exceptions allowed if a pregnancy was believed to be the result of rape or incest. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the panel also “blocked a measure that sought to reinstate the death penalty in some circumstances….”
NMAFL wrote in the email that (emphasis original) “HB 56 addressed a loophole in state law allowing pregnant teens to be taken off school premises for an abortion without a parent’s knowledge. The bill would require a parent be notified before an unemancipated minor can receive an abortion,” adding that “[o]pponents of HB 56 ignorantly claim ‘the Legislature is not the best place to make individual medical decisions,'” even though Rep. Deborah Armstrong, “who voted against the bill, sponsored 47 bills impacting ‘individual medical decisions’ last year.”
According to the Journal, the “emotional” hearing lasted four hours, with both abortion supporters and pro-lifers testifying. Abortion supporters claimed that if minors are forced to tell parents about their pregnancies, they may “turn to [some sort of unnamed] unsafe abortion options,” adding that “the state shouldn’t legislate family communication.” However, all abortion, from late-term abortion to first-trimester abortion, is a physical procedure that has physical risks. One of the witnesses for the pro-life side, Dr. Mary Rose Turner, warned the Committee about possible “complications of uterine rupture, sepsis and… higher risks of complications without a complete family medical history, which only parents can provide.”
On one hand, abortion proponents wish for abortion to be treated like a legitimate medical procedure (but balk at allowing parents granting permission for it as they would have to do for any other medical procedure performed on a minor child), and on the other hand, legislators like Rep. Roybal Caballero call the abortion decision “sacred,” according to NMAFL. Which is it? Is abortion just like any other procedure, or is it one unlike any other? Abortion proponents can’t seem to decide.
Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino explains a typical first trimester abortion procedure, which, while common, still has risks. Women having abortions, whether late-term abortion or even those committed in the first trimester, whether medication or surgical, have been seriously injured and have even died:
NMAFL writes, “Rep. Eliseo Alcon, who also voted to kill HB 56, showed more concern about saving dying fish than protecting girls from sexual abusers who take them in for an abortion.” The Journal notes that supporters of the bill pointed out “the possibility that girls abused by adult men would be pressured to get an abortion without a parent’s knowledge.” This has already happened, as is evidenced by court cases and has been seen in Live Action undercover video investigations of Planned Parenthood:
Rep. Bob Wooley, a NM Committee member who voted in favor of the bill for parental notification, said at the hearing, “Remember when you go to vote next year, remember who voted to keep parents out of their daughters lives.”
