Both parties support abortion notice

[Freddie Stubbs]

BY MARC CAPUTO

[e-mail]


TALLAHASSEE - A proposed constitutional amendment concerning abortion won the support of a majority of the Democrats on a conservative House committee Thursday, signaling that the measure will likely pass out of the Legislature by wide margins and end up on the November ballot.

Though suspicious of the presidential election-year timing of the issue, centrist Democrats in the more moderate Senate also approve of the measure requiring parents to be notified if their underage daughters get abortions. They cite opinion surveys that show widespread support for putting parental notification in the state Constitution. The state Supreme Court struck down a parental-notification law as unconstitutional last summer.

Previous incarnations of the House proposal were criticized and stalled by Democrats. They said the proposal needed a clear provision to protect victims of incest from telling their parents that they're pregnant.

But constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley, hired by the House to draft the amendment, helped allay some of those concerns Thursday by saying that ''dozens'' of U.S. Supreme Court rulings would shield those victims from the notification law.

more: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8164395.htm

[Ilsa]

1. No wonder there are so many mid- and late term aboortions...

By the time a woman
1. saves enough money for it;
2. saves enough money for travelling (sometimes multiple times) to wherever she can get one because no one nearby can perform one;
3. does all the paperwork to cover the doctor's legal/liability issues;
She could end up in the second trimester pretty easily.

[NC_Nurse]

2. Funny how

you can be tried as an adult at age 16, but you don't have any rights until 18.
What a crock of s*** all this is. If parents would get out of denial and talk to their children about std's, contraception, and realize their child's sexual choices are up to THEM, there wouldn't be so many teen pregnancies in the first place.
Are they gonna make a law that says if a parent does not allow a minor to have an abortion that they are legally responsible for the grandchild's upbringing?

[twilight]

11. the truth you have spoken

Very right you are. When I was growing up, my mother never discussed sex, pregnancy, or muchless birth control. So, I knew nothing if it wasn't for an organization called Planned Parenthood.

If you can vote at 14 (California's latest idea) why can't you decide what you want to do with YOUR body?

This is just another attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade and ... it is working!

Damn men!!

:dem: :kick:

[truthisfreedom]

3. oh gosh, this will help.

[truthspeaker]

4. my state has a parental notification law and I don't like it

But a constitutional amendment?! That's extreme even for anti-choicers.

[noonwitch]

5. I'm pro-choice, but I have mixed feelings about parental consent laws

A kid can't get her ears pierced until 18 without parental consent. Someone needs to consent for abortions, for the doctor's protection.
In Michigan, a family court judge hears petitions for teen girls seeking to bypass parental consent. It's a short process that in the Detroit system works pretty well. I would guess in a more conservative part of the state (like Grand Rapids), it doesn't unless it is a clear-cut case of incest or sexual assualt, and even then, if the judge is a dutch conservative (very likely over there), the kid just has to either tell the parents or have the baby. So there's a problem if the judge has an issue with abortion.

[truthspeaker]

9. I'm not entirely opposed to parental notification laws

As long as there is a reasonable legal process for exceptions. Also some states require that both parents be notified, even if one is non-custodial and hasn't been seen in years.

But a constitutional amendment is going too far.

[Red State Rebel]

6. As the mother of 3 daughters.....

I would be horrified if one of my girls was allowed to have an abortion under the age of 17 without my knowledge.

Shoot at our school, they can't even take an aspirin without my permission, why should they take away my right as a parent to be aware of a pregnancy, much less a surgical procedure?

[mobuto]

7. Because of the stigma attached to abortions

there's a good chance that instead of telling you, they'll hide their pregnancy until the point where abortion becomes unsafe, unethical or illegal, because they're too embarassed to come forward.

Now this may not be true of your daughters, but its true of many people's daughters.

[twilight]

10. and wouldn't you be upset if they went to some back alley butcher?

oh I guess that would be ok would it?

That is the reality of what many women both young and old of the past went through. You must be living in the dark ages.

I believe that every female that can become pregnant should be able to have an abortion if she so desires. Age is irrelevant.

This is why we see young women concealing pregnancies, only hoping they might miscarry (maybe it will "go away"). They also might try doing a lot of other things to cause a miscarriage.

Of course this was the way pregnancies were handled in the past and will be this way again in the future.

Enter the return of the back alley butcher that is lurking in the shadows just waiting for abortion to become illegal once again.

Is this what you really want for your precious daughters?

:dem: :kick:

[FauxNewsBlues]

12. Emotion is a two way street

9 year olds can get pregnant now and in fact have. Yes, I would love to have my 9 year old get an abortion after our neighbor raped her and not find out. I am sure though that she is imminently qualified to choose the best doctor though, because she is of course old enough to be pregnant, she should be able at 9 to have that abortion without me knowing.

In this case, I would have my daughter given an abortion. But you better be damned sure that I would investigate the ramifications of the procedure on somebody that young, I would hunt down and kill the bastard who did it, and I would personally research each and every doctor within a 3 state radius to determine who is the most skilled at performing the procedure.

But what the heck, she is 9. She will be driving in 7 years anyways. Maybe she can go to the clinic she chooses on her razor scooter.

You sir/madame are an extremist. I consider you just as dangerous as the fundies. This is not a gameboy, a wall poster, but a medical procedure. My children are free to get lipo, an abortion, whatever once they are at least old enough to drive.

Most of us live in a more complex world then you. Our choices are not coat hangers and forced birth clinics vs mandatory abortion. The world is a gray place. Radicals on the right and left though apparently think otherwise. Good thing you aren't in charge.

[twilight]

14. all I can say to you is this

You are very lucky you were not raised in a strict Catholic household because no one ever discussed sex or the possibilities of it.

As far as your 9 year old daughter goes, I hope she doesn't get raped and get pregnant.

In fact I hopes she never gets pregnant if she doesn't want to have children.

Many teenage girls got pregnant when I was growing up and also got abortions. And many of them were from strict Catholic backgrounds as well and no, they weren't "raped".

I cannot condem any woman for making this choice no matter what their age might be.

:dem:

[toopers]

13. Who do you think is going to be able to make a sound decision

a 15 year old. While there are lot of issues that should have been addressed before you get to the point of needing an abortion, not notifying the parents does not help anyone.

Who is going to pick a more competent doctor? A cash strapped child or the parents?

How do the parents address the issues that resulted in the pregnancy when they don't know a problem even exists? I realize that the parents should have known there was an issue before hand, but why do we want to perpetuate the problem?

[twilight]

15. if you've got Catholic parents

do you seriously think you'd have a choice? I doubt it. You find a way to sneak to a clinic and get an abortion if you did not want to keep the baby. Age becomes irrelevant.

:dem:

[toopers]

16. Yes, I do have catholic parents, but . . .

being a male I do not have as much of an issue. However, my wife and her parents are catholic. In discussions I had with them they would have wanted there child to get an abortion as opposed to having a child as a child. I realize this is in violation of catholic teachings, but then again, so was getting pregnant in the first place.

[FauxNewsBlues]

8. I am pro-choice but...

As long as there is an opt out system with a judge, I have no problem with parental notification laws.

Abortion is a medical procedure. You would not allow your 12 year old daughter to have a tonsilectomy without your notification. In case of rape or incest, committed by the family, I would rather the guilty parties be punished rather than the girl delivering a child.

Most adults, IMHO, share these beliefs. We are not radical on abortion on either end. Those who believe that abortion should be banned even during rape and incest, or that abortion should be available at a drive thru window for 12 year olds really do not speak for the majority of people.

President Clinton I believe put it best when he said that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.

[NC_Nurse]

17. People seem to be overlooking the fact that

it's not usually the girls with good relationships with their parents that GET pregnant at age 12-17. The people in this group are probably a little more on the ball than a lot of the parents out there and their daughters would be more likely to TELL them.
As for the 9 year old...that's a handful of girls who are even menstruating at 9 and if they got raped, wouldn't they be more likely to tell their parents than if they had some fault in the pregnancy? I think that's like saying that f we allow gay marriage, people will want polygamy, etc. You're taking it to an extreme possiblity to discredit a reasonable idea.
A lot of teens are much saner than their parents, IMO.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. What if the minor is pregnant by her father?

Think he's going to let her get an abortion? Not likely.

And there are a lot of potential grandparents out there who wouldn't want their daughters getting abortions either.

As much as I'd want any daughter of mine to tell me, so I could be supportive of her decision; I still think it's wrong to require notification.