
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 23, 1990                   TAG: 9007230303
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A/6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ARTICLE'S VIEW AFFRONT TO PARENTS

THE COMMENTARY on parental notification by Pamela Patton (July 2) went too far. Labeling parental notification "teen endangerment" was an affront to parents and what the family stands for.

The majority of parents have children because they have a God-given desire to love and nurture that child to adulthood. They know that parenting will bring sorrow as well as joy, but they still love their children and are responsible for guiding them to make the right choices.

Teen-age sex and pregnancy are a problem, but abortion is not the cure-all that young people are led to believe. As the commentary pointed out, women do die of abortions. Legal and illegal, the procedure is the same. The parents will be the ones notified if their teen-ager shows up at a hospital hemorrhaging from an abortion. The parents will be the ones to comfort their daughter, pay her medical bills, nurse her back to health, or bury her if she dies.

The commentary seemed to say that parents would be doing their children a favor by abandoning their responsibility to guide and protect them, by letting them hide from the consequences of their actions by secretly having abortions, and by teaching them that babies only have value if they are "wanted." I think not! I'm glad that the Supreme Court is on the side of parents and families.

LISHA STOWE\ BLACKSBURG

by CNB