A measure that would require parental notification for any girl between the ages of 15 and 17 seeking an abortion has qualified for the upcoming Oregon ballot in November.
The proposed law would ban Medicare providers from performing an abortion on a minor unless her parent or guardian receives written notice of the procedure 48 hours before it is to take place. After notification, the parent or guardian must provide identification to the medical provider proving his or her relationship to the girl. The U.S. Congress passed a similar bill yesterday that would make taking a girl across state lines to avoid parental permission requirements punishable by fines and up to a year in prison.
Currently, Oregon is one of just six states with no laws on parental notification or involvement in abortion decisions for teens aged 15-17, though parents of children younger than 15 must be informed when their child undergoes any major medical procedure.
Some abortion opponents say that making abortions easily available to teens makes them more likely to engage in sexual activities. In Oregon, however, teen pregnancy has declined 39 percent since voters defeated a similar measure in 1990. As a result of the fact that teen sexual activity rates in Oregon have decreased 11 percent during approximately the same time frame, it is safe to assume that ready access to abortion doesn’t increase risky behavior.
If passed, Oregon would offer a “bypass” system that would allow the girl to ask a judge in a private hearing to defer the requirement to determine whether she is mature enough to consent for the abortion. We disagree with the presumption that a girl who feels uncomfortable enough around her parents to not tell them about her desire to have an abortion will approach the legal system about the same issue.
The parental notification that the law would require differs little from parental consent because of the requirement that the parent or guardian show identification to the practitioner performing the abortion. Presumably, if the parent or guardian refuses to go in, the girl will not be allowed to have an abortion, meaning that the law would require de facto consent from the girl’s parents, diminishing her right to choose. Furthermore, this measure may damage the girl’s relationship with her family if she is forced to inform her parents of actions to which they may strongly oppose.
That parents would choose when their daughters are already pregnant and seeking abortions as a time to exercise their parental obligations is an example of good intentions applied too late. These are girls who are mature enough to choose to have sex and are mature enough to be pregnant. It does not follow that these same girls should be denied the choice to end their pregnancies if they so desire. If parents really want to affect their daughters choices, they should be involved enough in their lives to impart some of their values before their daughters end up pregnant.
This measure’s absurdity becomes even more evident when considering the fact that Congress recently passed a bill funding marriage counseling with the aim of decreasing the number of single mothers. The girls this bill affects would not even be old enough to have graduated high school, much less have jobs paying a living wage. Because their partners would likely be young as well, even if the two were to marry, which may not be advisable in the first place, they would have few opportunities for an independent lifestyle with a child.
We urge Oregon voters to reject this overly paternalistic and misguided measure like they have consistently rejected similar measure in the past. Requiring parental notification, or de facto parental consent will not solve the problem of pregnant teenagers, and it will not stop girls from obtaining abortions without their parents’ knowledge, whether legally or not. Forcing a desperate girl to potentially hurt herself by going outside the law is never a good idea. There are more important things to focus on other than issues that only affect girls and their right to choose.