This highlights the state's rights versus federal enforcement fight currently being waged regarding abortion.
The current situation:
Thirty-two states have parental-involvement laws in force, though the National Right to Life Committee considers eight of the laws ineffectual
because of loopholes.
In all 32 states except Utah, a procedure called judicial bypass allows a minor to petition a judge for permission to get an abortion without telling
her parents. In many courts, these waivers are granted routinely to any reasonably mature girl who asks; elsewhere the requests often are denied,
prompting some girls to opt for an abortion in another state without a parental involvement law.
One may think it would be enough to appease the supposed "parent's rights advocates" to make it illegal in your own state for a pregnant teen to
make reproductive decisions without the difficult task of going before a judge. But the fact it may be legal a couple hundred miles away "erodes"
those parent's authority according to them.
Thus the desire to ban crossing state lines to where that "child" may be considered an autonomous adult in the matter. The argument that it protects
the girl from "abusive relationships" would have more validity if a girl of 16 or 17 were allowed to drive herself across state lines. But this
wording does not even allow that. It
presumes a girl as old as 17 that may even be in college can't drive or possibly decide she doesn't want
to carry a child to term without the presence of "an abusive relationship."
Quite an assumption. Only a distraught, abused, crazy person would ever want an abortion, right?
Let's protect them from themsleves shall we?
Like Alabama does? I fear this is the new model for the federal law.
Abortion-rights advocates cite Alabama — where consent of one parent is required before a minor's abortion — as a state with notable
roadblocks for girls seeking a court waiver.
Jennifer Dalven of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project said judges in Birmingham and some other Alabama communities oppose waivers so adamantly
that legal aid attorneys now advise pregnant minors not to bother requesting one. Instead, Dalven said, girls are counseled to consider getting an
abortion in Georgia or Florida, where procedures are somewhat more flexible.
"
Judges in Alabama call teens who seek abortion murderers, force them to sit through religious programming, and still deny their petitions,"
Dalven said. "For these teens, going out of state is their only option. ... It's been a critical safety valve that would be lost if this bill is
passed."
Can you imagine this even goes on in the American judicial system, not to mention they want to export this southern red state mentality and impose it
on you?
Why do the anti-choice people even torture us with all this nuanced, manufactured, piece by piece, day in and day out crap. Quit dilly dallying. You
want it all criminalized. All of it! Show your hand you side-stepping civil liberties nibblers. These half baked measures to outlaw
some
abortions, or make
some harder by definition mean you're acknowledging the legality of others. By default then you're acting in opposition to
your own beliefs or engaged in a rather disturbing form of political insincerity
praying the slippery slope will erode to your benefit down the
road. Why lie about it? God hates your luke warm faith.
[edit on 29-1-2005 by RANT]
