THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503240023
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Parents of pregnant teens should be notified before abortions are performed. Columnist Molly Ivins' suggestion that pro-life people don't care about the poor young girl who is afraid to tell her parents she's pregnant is totally unfounded. Pro-life Americans run and support the many crisis pregnancy centers and adoption agencies in this country because we care about these girls and the life-changing decisions they make. That same young girl she says we are not compassionate toward may take her own life because she can't live with the guilt of having killed her innocent baby. Because a very young woman may not be ``responsible enough to make her own decision about her own body'' as Ms. Ivins says, she could be tormented for the rest of her life.
Many daughters may not realize the compassion, help and loving support they would receive from their parents should an unplanned pregnancy occur. I hope my 3- and 4 1/2-year-old girls will have open communication with me as they mature. But if they mistakenly believe pregnancy is a topic they cannot openly discuss, I hope by then the law will be on my side. It's my job to nurture and care for my daughters' emotional and physical needs. No one else in this world loves them as much as their father and I do. Withholding any pertinent information about them is denying us the basic freedoms we should be constitutionally guaranteed as parents - and possibly endangers the lives and emotional well-being of our precious children.
Texas should pass the parental-notification bill.
MEGAN HOYT
Virginia Beach, March 21, 1995 by CNB