Parental Notification makes a difference
The Washington Post has a story on a New England Journal of Medicine study confirming that the Texas law requiring parental notification before minors have abortions has had a noticeable effect. While abortion rates have been dropping overall, the rate for girls under 18 dropped more than for women over 18, and the rates declined the most for the youngest group of girls.
Supporters of Proposition 73, the California ballot measure on parental notification that narrowly failed during Governor Schwarzenegger's Special Election, are gathering signatures to get a parental notification measure on the ballot for the November 2006 General Election.
If you're registered to vote in California (Hi Betsy!), please take a minute to e-mail the organizers for a petition, fill it out, and mail it in (if you want to gather some more signatures first, that's even better!).
Comments
It's always easier to sin in secret. This works in so many areas...when men (and I'm GENDERalizing here) used to have to go to sleezy peep shows and video stores to get their porn - and risk being seen by a friend or neighbor - there were a lot fewer consumers of that, how shall we say, genre. Now, you can view in the privacy of your own home or cubicle and none's the wiser. So too with gay proclivities. When one had to keep this activity pretty quiet there was a lot less of it. I think the abortion thing works the same way. If the girl has to face the parents and tell them what she's planning to do, she is more likely to consider that what she is doing is wrong (unless, of course, she goes to Stuyvesant High where she will probably get a high five from her folks!)
Posted by: Betsy | March 10, 2006 1:21 PM
That's a really good point, Betsy. My father-in-law has said something similar about the virtue of small towns: it's harder to be a total screw-up when everyone knows you. While I've often heard character defined as "doing the right thing, even when no one is watching," I think human nature makes it easier for us to stay squared away when we know that doing otherwise would disappoint or offend others.
Posted by: Don Roberts | March 14, 2006 7:06 AM