Prop 4

Proposition 4 - No

I think we’ve voted this thing down before, more than once. Seriously, this group in another state puts this thing on our ballot over and over again hoping one day we’ll screw up and pass the thing. Not this time.

Prop 4 is parental notification for a minor to have an abortion and again, I’m voting no.
First of all, to make things clear, yes I am pro-choice. I’m not sure I personally could go through with the procedure if I was pregnant, but I don’t think the right should be taken away from all women because of that. But this isn’t a pro-choice issue. This isn’t trying to make abortion illegal, it’s trying to make it harder for a minor to have one.

I had a friend once say, and I believe they are right, you can’t mandate good communication (funny this is, I just read the same working in the voter pamphlet. I wonder if she got it from that). If a teenage wants an abortion, then the family should be involved. I have no problem with that. Pregnancy is a big life changing event (I think abortion can affect someone for the rest of their life as well as having the child) and involving the parents, or I guess this this case, the grandparents is the right thing to do.

But many teens in this situation come from homes with little parental support, abuse (physically, mentally, or emotionally), drug usage, and a variety of other factors. Some are scared of their parents, others rarely see them. A friend used to work at planned parenthood and she’s talked about the teenagers who plead and beg for PP not to tell their parents, afraid of what might happen if they did. Who knows why these kids are so afraid, but I don’t want to put them in a situation where they have to decide whether or not to tell their parents or have an unsafe abortion. Many, I believe, would have the unsafe abortion.

From what I have read, although I don’t have the research at the tips of my fingers, laws like this don’t decrease the number of abortions, but increase the number of teens who cross state lines and get illegal/unsafe abortions. The number of deaths from unsafe abortions are hard to come by because the women don’t die from them. They die from infections or other factors. That’s what’s listed on the death certificate, so determining from what they actually died from can be difficult.

The people who wrote this proposition say they there are legal remedies for children who are scared of their parent or can’t go to them for some reason. But they seem to forget how slow our legal system is. By the time a girl figures out she’s pregnant, decides to have the abortion, and goes through the legal system, she’ll probably be somewhere in the second trimester and having an abortion that late is just not good for the child or mother.

For a groups of people who say they want a small government (a common theme among conservatives) I find it interesting how they want the government forcing their way into some of the most private of decisions.

Please vote no.