Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 5, 1992 TAG: 9203050296
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE and NEAL THOMPSON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I am dismayed that the Virginia Senate has passed the first anti-abortion legislation in my memory," said Kathryn Haynie, executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge.
But Andrea Sexton, spokeswoman for the Roanoke affiliate of the Virginia Society for Human Life, was disappointed, too - because the age requiring notification was lowered from 17 to 15.
Haynie and Sexton agreed that statistics indicate most younger girls now talk to their parents before seeking an abortion - though they bring different perspectives to that agreement.
In 1990, the last year for which statistics are available, the Roanoke Medical Center for Women reported that 214 of its 2,074 abortions were for minors. Of those, 56 percent reported having informed one or both of their parents of the decision.
"The sad part is that those 15 and under who do not voluntarily involve their parents tend to be from families where there is tremendous turmoil" and often abuse and neglect, Haynie said.
Although the lower age threshold "will affect fewer young people," Haynie said, "I don't consider anything about the passage of this legislation a victory."
The fact is that the younger girls have fewer options than those of driving age, Sexton said, so are much more likely to talk to a parent.
"I don't mean to say that I'm not happy that they protected those 16 and under," Sexton said, but this bill "will not change what goes on in Virginia very much.
In fact, according to 1990 statistics from the Virginia Center for Health Statistics, only about 23 percent of minors' abortions were performed on girls under age 16 - 670 of 2,897.
Of those who could be affected, children who feel they cannot talk to their parents are the primary concern of those who work with pregnant teen-agers.
Kathy Kelly, who runs Roanoke's School for Pregnant Teens, said legislators who approved the bill seem to assume that all families are functional. In fact, those likely to get pregnant often live in dysfunctional families.
"I think we really need to listen to those teens who say they can't talk to their parents," she said.
Gary Kelly, Roanoke County's guidance director, agreed.
"I'm sure in certain circumstances, there could be some violence involved," he said.
Kids don't always talk to their parents. Many of them talk to school guidance counselors, instead, about sexuality issues - including abortion - because they get misinformation or no information from their parents, Gary Kelly said.
School guidance counselors may have to change the information they give students about abortion if the bill passes the House of Delegates and Gov. Douglas Wilder.
Counselors now tell pregnant students what their options are. They don't encourage or discourage the abortion option, they said, but they do let them know that it is one option. If the law changes, they may begin telling some students that they need to notify their parents.
And that may scare kids off to another state.
North Carolina, for example, does not require parental consent or notification. Dr. Paula Smith of the Women's Adolescent Health Center in Raleigh said different abortion clinics have different restrictions, but some have very few and require no parental approval.
That's what Roanoke guidance supervisor Lou Talbutt is afraid of.
"Some students might go to another state and avoid it [notifying their parents] altogether," Talbutt said. "Does this mean that teens are going to get into a car and go to North Carolina, West Virginia or [Washington] D.C. for an abortion?"
Other youth workers contend that a variety of factors influence teens' decisions when they find themselves pregnant.
"I think it's going to have a different impact on different areas," said Kaye Hale of the West End Center, an after-school program for mostly disadvantaged students from the Hurt Park area.
"Our kids don't have abortions. The majority of the inner-city kids have their babies," Hale said. "I think that it will have more of a devastating effect on middle-class or upper middle-class kids who absolutely don't want their parents to know they're pregnant."
Roanoke Valley Juvenile and Domestic Court Judge Philip Trompeter said the General Assembly will need to set guidelines if it expects him to be making "parental decisions."
Without a strict set of guidelines on how judges are to make those decisions, it creates "troubling issues" of possible judicial biases. Without guidelines, the personal abortion opinions of judges could get in the way.
Sexton of the Virginia Society for Human Life also worries about handing the fate of pregnant teens into the hands of judges. She would have preferred a bypass procedure that would have required physicians to refer teens who reported abuse or fears of abuse to authorities who could investigate those.
Another legal issue bothers Haynie of Planned Parenthood - the fact that the abortion decision was the only one exempted from an existing Virginia law that allows minors to make their own choices about a range of health-care decisions.
Minors do not need to notify parents to be treated for a sexually transmitted disease, for substance abuse, or to obtain birth-control services - except for sterilization.
Ultimately, the fate of the bill is likely to land in Wilder's lap, and neither Haynie nor Sexton would predict what his reaction might be.
If it does get to the governor, though, "We will remind him that he was elected on a pro-choice platform," Haynie said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB