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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 26, 1994                   TAG: 9404270010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ABORTION WARS

THOSE whose aim is simply to erect barriers to abortion were presumably pleased by Gov. George Allen's veto last week of the parental-notification bill as passed by the General Assembly. The bill would not have blocked many abortions. A stiffer measure can be sought next year or the year after.

Presumably pleased, too, are those whose aim is simply to prevent any tampering with current abortion-rights law. Because the assembly was unwilling to accept Allen's proposed amendments, and Allen to accept the assembly's bill, the situation remains as before: Virginia has no notification requirement.

For those who see more in the parental-notification issue than just another battle in the abortion wars, the veto is disappointing. The bill, if enacted, might have improved the odds of counsel from a caring and close adult for young girls in bad situations where the only good answer - prevention - is by definition no longer an option.

The assembly was right to reject the governor's amendments. The governor was wrong to veto the unamended legislation.

Would making the notification requirement apply to girls 16 and under (the assembly's version), instead of 17 and under (the governor's), greatly reduce the number affected?

Maybe. But it would appropriately target those who, by virtue of young age, most need adult advice.

Would allowing grandparents, stepparents or siblings over 21 to serve as the notified (the assembly's version), rather than only parents or legal guardian (the governor's), make it an adult-notification rather than parental-notification measure?

Maybe again. But by the time a young teen is already pregnant and contemplating an abortion, enforcement of parental authority is a side issue. The point of a notification law should be to bring a caring, close adult, if one is available, into the making of a very serious decision.

With any notification law, there's a potential irony: The assumption that mandatory notification would mean more pregnant teens are persuaded to give birth than to abort is not necessarily true. It could prove the other way around.

The governor's amendments raised a second irony. The bill contained a judicial-bypass provision, as any notification bill must if it is to guard against making abusive situations worse. By limiting notification to parents and legal guardians, Allen might have made resort to such bypass more rather than less likely. In those cases, notification would have been made with someone who's not only a nonparent but also a stranger.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

by CNB