Word: consent
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...been talking about sex. In Massachusetts, which requires teens to obtain the permission of both parents or of a judge, about 75% of the girls who have abortions share the decision with their parents. Levels of parental involvement are equally high in neighboring Connecticut and New Hampshire, where such consent is not required. "I see no point whatsoever in the parent- involvement laws," says Jamie Ann Sabino, an attorney who chairs the Lawyer Referral Panel on Judicial Consent for Minors in Massachusetts. "These girls didn't go to their parents because of them...
...cite a study conducted between 1980 and 1984 indicating that the birthrate for 15-to-17-year-olds in Minneapolis rose 38.4%, while the birthrate for 18-to-19-year-olds, not covered by the law, rose only 0.3%. In the 20 months after Massachusetts put its parental-consent law into effect in 1981, 1 of every 3 teenage abortions was done out of state, while those within the state dropped 43%. Former Superior Court Judge Paul Garrity, who is pro-life by sentiment, feels that the law exists to "harass these kids...
...anomaly in the movement to require a parent's consent to an abortion is that there is no law requiring parental approval of staying pregnant and bearing a child, with its life-changing, lifelong consequences. There are compelling health and safety arguments against pregnancy: teenage girls are 24 times as likely to die of childbirth as of a first-trimester abortion, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute. While having a child is one part of the full and complex life of a woman, it often turns out to be the % defining, and confining, fact of a teenager's existence. Eight...
Whatever the political costs, activists on each side of the abortion debate have vowed to battle it out, somehow assured they can win over the middle. NARAL's Michelman is determined to convince the public that parental-consent laws are a sham. Pro-life and pro-choice forces in Congress pledge to wage the fight over funds for rape and incest victims again and again, every time Boxer or her allies attach a rider to a bill. "We'll debate this till we're blue in the face, and there will be blood all over the chamber," says Hyde...
CAPTION: Do you favor or oppose a law requiring a teenager to have her parents' consent before an abortion...