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Prop. 4 messages are mixed
Valley voters are hearing mixed messages when it comes to Proposition 4, a ballot measure that would require doctors to notify a parent or guardian before performing abortions on girls younger than 18.
Local supporters say the measure would help fight sexual predators by making it more difficult for them to force their victims to have secret abortions.
Opponents plan to begin airing television ads next week in Spanish and English that emphasize a different angle: the health and safety of the pregnant teens.
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No on Prop. 85
Is a parent's right to know more important than a teen's safety? As a parent of a teen daughter, I hope she would come to me with any major decision. However, if not, I would want her to have access to safe professional medical care and counseling. Can the government effectively mandate good family communication?
As a nurse who counsels pregnant teens, I strongly encourage them to notify at least one of their parents if they are considering abortion. Most do. However, there are some teens who do not have ideal family lives, and fear prevents them from communicating.
Proponents of this initiative state that there is a judicial bypass to help the teen who can't talk to her parents. Would a scared, vulnerable, pregnant teen be more likely to navigate the judicial system to ask a judge for permission? What if the judge is anti-abortion? If a teen has made the decision to abort, she will figure out a way, safely or not.
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'Safety for our daughters'
Whether you're Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, pro-life or pro-choice, there is one thing we have in common -- we all have family, and would do anything to protect them. Proposition 85 is our chance to do just that.
Proposition 85 gives parents the legal right to know 48 hours in advance if their under-age daughter is scheduled for a surgical abortion. Not the right to even prohibit the surgery from occurring -- they simply must be notified.
Right now, children under 18 can't get an aspirin or go on a field trip without parental consent, but a girl as young as 12 can take a secret field trip to perform a serious operation during school hours without her parents ever knowing. In fact, 30 states have already implemented propositions similar to this one.
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Restore rights, save lives
My son's high-school English class is scheduled to see a play in Fresno and transportation will be via school bus. He cannot attend if he has no signed parental consent form, which is reasonable and customary for school events held off-campus.
Conversely, state law allows a minor to procure an abortion without her parents' knowledge. This is precisely why a "yes" vote on Proposition 85 is critical.
As a parent, I have a right to know what my minor child is doing at all times. For the state to usurp my rights as a parent and allow my child to obtain a surgical procedure without my knowledge and against my wishes is nothing short of tyranny.
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Protect teenage girls
Teenagers are often very stubborn. They can also make mistakes. If a girl believes her parents must not know she is pregnant, no law in the world will change her mind. Even though she might be completely wrong, she will do anything to keep her parents from finding out, simply because she is a headstrong teenager.
If Proposition 85 passes, a girl who feels this way has very few options. She can run away (perhaps trusting her life to the older man who got her pregnant that Proposition 85 supporters keep mentioning). If she does not run, she can seek an illegal abortion, killing not only her unborn fetus but very possibly losing her ability to have future children, if not her life. Or she can consider suicide. These could be her only remaining options.
Proposition 85 puts our teenage daughters in needless danger by taking away the least horrible option they may have. Whatever one's beliefs regarding abortion and parental rights, please protect our most vulnerable girls by voting "no" on Proposition 85
It would be a wonderful thing if all pregnant teens had supportive families with open lines of communication, and a decision about a pregnancy could be made calmly around the dinner table. But many teens don't have that family support and that is part of our concern about Proposition 4, a parental notification measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Proposition 4 is the third initiative in three years trying to require parental notification when someone under 18 seeks to end a pregnancy.
It would require that a doctor notify parents or another relative 48 hours before performing an abortion on a girl under 18. In California, those under 18 have the same right to an abortion as an adult.
On its surface, Proposition 4 seems to provide an alternative to a desperate teen -- the right to go before a judge for a notification waiver.
But we don't think that is a reasonable option for a frightened girl, especially since she would have to provide a written statement that she had been subject to a pattern of physical, sexual or emotional abuse by her parent.
More likely, she would delay getting medical care or seek an abortion from an unscrupulous and unsafe provider. That would only worsen her circumstances.
Proposition 4 would allow parents or the teen to sue the doctor if he or she did not comply with the notification requirement. Because of this potential for costly lawsuits, the California Academy of Family Physicians opposes the initiative.
We agree with the physicians' group that parents "rightfully want to be involved in their teenagers' lives and want their daughters to come to them if they become pregnant."
But this type of communication does not exist in all families and cannot be mandated through a constitutional amendment. The state also should not be adding to the legal liabilities of doctors who would be compelled to meet the notification provisions in this initiative.
We are concerned that the notification law may increase the number of second-trimester abortions. Some teens, wary of having their parents notified, may delay decisions.
Seeking medical treatment as early as possible in these circumstances is in the best interest of all concerned.
We recommend a "no" vote on Proposition 4 on Nov. 4.
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