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Notes from the
Field: Pro-Life Laws Make So Much Common Sense They are
Hard to Oppose
By Jonathan Rogers Last month, I walked into a Staples in Keene, New Hampshire. Keene is a lovely little town nestled in the woods and granite hills of Southwest New Hampshire. I was in New Hampshire working with our NRLC affiliate, Citizens for Life, and their new President, Gail DeMasi. I can't speak warmly enough about Gail and her family, who welcomed me into their home as I helped her build up a grassroots base. Gail's energy and the enthusiasm of pro-lifers I met across the state was an experience I'm very privileged to have enjoyed. New Hampshire is reconsidering Parental Notification again this year. In years past saw Citizens for Life successfully passed the legislation, but was subsequently stymied by pro-abortion court rulings and a pro-abortion legislature that repealed the law. But with strong new pro-life majorities in both houses, the Parental Notification bill is in good shape right now, passing the House this past Wednesday on a vote of 256 to 102. Parental Notification is one of the most “no-brainer” pro-life laws possible. It requires only that parents be notified before their minor daughter has an abortion. That a bill to empower parents to help their children might still meet opposition in some circles seems baffling. The entire point of legally defining teenagers as "minors" in the first place is to ensure that they are protected and supported by caring guardians. Knowing what any parent knows about adolescents, why on Earth should we think that they are emotionally capable of dealing with an experience as traumatic as abortion? Though every abortion is lethal to one person and dangerous to a second, teenagers experience higher complication rates from abortion as their bodies are not fully developed (www.nrlc.org/factsheets/FS17_TeensandAbortion.pdf). All too often, teenagers try to procure an abortion in secret because they are afraid of what their parents might think about them being pregnant. (The law contains a judicial bypass procedure for cases where a girl comes from a truly abusive family background, which provides an opportunity for authorities to take action, rather than simply providing an abortion and sending the girl back to the same dangerous environment.) We can probably all think back to times when we tried to hide something from our parents for fear of their reaction when we had no reason to. Parents may well be initially surprised and disappointed to learn that their daughter is pregnant, but first reactions are overcome by their desire to help their daughter with her pregnancy and the knowledge that they'd very much like to be grandparents. This is one of the reasons that Parental Notification laws help reduce abortion. If you take a look at the link I provided above, you'll see how Texas' Parental Involvement law reduced abortions the year after it was passed. So all the above was running through my head when I walked into that Staples in Keene, NH, to go to the printing section to run off several hundred copies of fliers on Parental Notification and Citizens for Life's grassroots educational efforts. As I walked up to the clerk to arrange the printing job, she glanced at the flier I needed copied and her eyes lit up. Explaining what the bill was and why it was needed, she became animated."This makes so much sense!” she said. “Of course parents should know!" Then the kicker, "You know, I support Roe v. Wade and think that abortion should be available in some cases, but this law should definitely be passed." Yes, reader, even “pro-choice” supporters of Roe find themselves in opposition to the Supreme Court decisions which legalized abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy for any reason. Take a look at this 2005 Gallup poll and you'll find that even a majority of individuals who consider themselves "pro-choice" favor Parental Involvement laws (http://www.gallup.com/poll/20203/americans-favor-parental-involvement-teen-abortion-decisions.aspx). Pro-choice individuals support Parental Involvement laws because such blatantly common sense actions are so painfully and obviously needed that they cut through the ideological smog and make people think about actual real world examples showing how much legalized abortion harms women and children. So that went well, and it was a good trip up to New England, even if we did get three feet of snow while I was there. In addition to the great work being done on Parental Notification, I'm pleased to tell you that another attempt at legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide failed spectacularly in the legislature (http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/March11/nv031611part2.html). I had a great time in New Hampshire and thank everyone I met for their hospitality and hard work and enthusiasm. See you next time. I need your feedback on both Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha |