Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 16, 1992 TAG: 9203160140
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Referring minors for abortion without parental knowledge is an attack on the integrity of the family. Parents have a right to know. It is not enough to say, even assuming that it is true, that counselors and abortionists "encourage" teens to tell their parents.
The decision on whether parents will be stripped of their rights of oversight cannot rest with confused and frightened children. If there is an accusation of abuse, parents deserve a hearing. A system which presumes that parents are unfit to guide their children and does not offer them an opportunity to demonstrate otherwise is profoundly unjust.
A deep anti-parent bias underlies the idea that even well-intentioned counselors, who have no responsibility for the long-range consequences, are in a better position than parents to counsel teen-agers on abortion.
In the absence of abuse, the argument that teens cannot tell their parents only means that they are afraid to do so. Anger, frustration, and disappointment are likely parental reactions.
But none of these constitutes abuse. In fact, they are all evidence of love. It is sad that opponents of notification believe that the cool detachment (at best) of outsiders is a substitute for the tough and demanding love of parents.
If the young woman has a valid fear of abuse, she should be under the protection of the court. Giving her an abortion on the sly and sending her back into a potentially abusive home does nothing to secure her welfare.
Repeatedly, we have heard that opponents of notification fear for the health of pregnant teens. But why the anxiety? Sixteen states have parental notification laws. If the anxiety is justified, there should be abundant evidence of the suffering that is supposed to follow the enactment of such laws.
In fact, the news from states with notification laws is very good. In all parts of this country, pregnancies, abortions, and births among unwed minors have declined after enactment of notification laws.
Why do people oppose laws that make so much sense and produce such results? Is their real fear that, with the counsel and support of parents, fewer teens will choose abortion? If so, that fear betrays a philosophy which is not pro-choice but fanatically pro-abortion.
How else are we to understand the astonishing claim of notification opponents that it is impossible to be pro-choice and support parental notification?
Surely, there are many Virginians who support both legal abortion and public policies which empower parents to counsel and direct their minor children in the matter of abortion.
by CNB