Several doctors joined the organization in suing the state Tuesday.
Voters approved the measure in August and the law goes into effect Dec. 14. It requires Alaska doctors notify a parent before performing an abortion on girls younger than 18.
There is a notification exception for victims of abuse by a parent or guardian. A girl could get an abortion without parental notice with a notarized statement about the abuse signed by an adult relative or authorized official.
Planned Parenthood says the law violates privacy rights guaranteed in the state Constitution.
The Anchorage Daily News reports state officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As far as the issue of abortion, the "left" has spun the argument from where it should be. The real question is not whether a woman has the right to control her own body, or "reproductive rights", but WHEN she makes the choice and whether she is responsible for the consequences of that choice. If I don't want to live with the consequence of a choice, I decide that I don't want to get burned before I stick my hand in the fire. Not after I feel the heat. No birth control device is 100% effective.
Please do not attempt to use the real but rare instances of "rape, incest, & life of the mother" argument to rationalize the 90% uses of abortion as a birth control device. That is a different issue.
These opponents have turned a belief in abortions into something akin to its own religion. They have lost touch with reality.
I am an observer on the sideline until the abortionists try to reach out to my children.
Remember, this is a grotesque effort on a single issue.
Having a staff member from planned parenthood counsel a child about abortion is like having Jim Jones counsel someone about Kool-aid.
“If one hair is harmed on the head of one girl, then this law is despicable!” doesn’t acknowledge the reality of our world. No law that affects a diverse population will fail to have unintended consequences. No law, no matter intent or language will be free of harm to some part of our population.
Over 300,000 serious infections per year as a result of abortions. Shouldn’t parents be aware when a medical procedures with potentially serious side effects?
Evidently. Resolving this logical inconsistency can utilize the pro-liberty solution of removing a teens' self-medication rights or the pro-authoritarian solution of adding further restrictions to a teens' reproductive rights.
Liberty and rights are scalar, not vectorial.
AlaskaBorn: I've no idea what Planned Parenthood advocates. I'm analyzing the issue strictly from the principles of individual liberty.
Isanova: Thanks for the empirical observations - those are always nice to have to confirm principles.
====================
You're young, you've no rights, you long for new heights,
But some of those nights leave more than love bites,
Tops cropped, skirts stop at the top of their thighs,
And the boys got that hungry look in their eyes,
They wanna be grown up and have respect you see,
But they're acting uneducated sexually,
I ain't saying' be celibate,
Go out and have your fun,
But there's plenty you can do without impregnation,
And there ain't nothing wrong at all with having children,
Just build yourself a little before you try to build them,
And god help our teens who go out into the streets to have illegal abortions, who end up maimed by them... or emotionally scared from the situation or the abortion itself. There are few to slim mental health resources in this town, and almost no counseling that is available to homeless teenagers.
The girls are the ones who will suffer because of this bill, far in excess of any lives it might save.
It is hard for me to speak on the matter, the way I was born I will never bear a child of my own, but I will say this.
If even one child has to run away from home, or, god forbid, considers suicide rather than having to face their parents with the shame of being pregnant, then this bill is monstrous. Knowing more than a few people who have been on the streets as teenagers, and kids who have been in abusive and destructive homes, I can see it easily happening. I would go so far as to say it is very likely to happen now.
Not every bad parent is going to break their daughter's jaw for getting pregnant, but some will. More common will be the child who does not do well with their family, who will turn to the streets living with friends rather than face their parents knowing their shame.
I don't know how many would turn to backstreet abortions (coat hanger horror stories, or paying someone to punch you in the stomach until you have a miscarriage) but it would be seen as easier than carrying a baby whilst living on the streets. A lot of homeless teenagers end up "dating" people and doing sexual favors just to have a couch or floor to sleep on, and it's not as easy to attract a man when you're pregnant.
Abortion is not ideal by any means, but it is a LOT better than the alternatives for many of these girls. When the pro-life groups stop believing in the fantasy that every parent loves their child and every household is a healthy, safe environment.... when they stop supporting the death penalty and stop railing against government welfare programs that help women to raise kids in these situations... and when they start caring about the kids dumped in the system/forgotten about... THEN I might see about getting behind ending most abortions (medically necessary ones I think should be legal regardless). Until then, I see them as a bunch of hypocrites wanting to feel morally superior.
Why the big push on a single issue. Why this one inroad into the rights and responsibilities of parents. There are children that need dental care. Where is the ADA with their lawsuit, backed up by the ACLU?
It’s simple; it’s a push for abortion. Plain. Simple.
No law can remedy a dysfunctional family but this law can bolster the misues of power that often accompanies dysfunctional families.
A healthy family where a teen pregnancy is truly an accident won't need state coercion to foster communication while an unhealthy family will only have their condition further enabled by this legislation.
Also I'm skeptical this is the will of "The Alaskan People". More like the will of imported carpetbagging lower 48ers who are disproportionately represented by lunatic cult members. I say lunatic because they reject logic and embrace a witch doctor worldview.
Of course bring enough of them and you will have a new Alaska courtesy of the snake oil, clandestine pervert preachers spreading brain damage among the population. So in the long run you might be right. Oh yippee.
What would Occam's Razor suggest about a single issue (this is critical- “single issue”) that breaks the legal bonds that govern parent’s sole responsibility for caring for their children?
Don’t you find it odd that out of state organizations are willing to spend tremendous amounts of money to overturn the explicit will of the Alaskan people- on a single issue?
For the first group, the law is irrelevant, for the second, it's irrelevant or redundant.
While the electorate might be dumb enough to vote for legislation that is irrelevant and redundant, Occam's Razor suggests a religious insurgency propelled this measure as a part of an ongoing program to incrementally impose a christian form of sharia.
At least they have the decency to exclude victims of parental abuse.
What if your daughter had a bleeding disorder, was thirteen and was to scared to tell anyone? Besides, if the government can do this they can and will do anything. Who knows, they might even start feeling your breasts and genitals at the airport screening for bombs! No sorry, that's crazy, that will never happen, I'm speaking paranoid crazy talk again, forgive me.
I am neither. I am a parent who sees through the ludicrous “reasons” of those who view abortions with the zeal of a fundamentalist.
Hear me well; those who advocate abortions without parental notification have less concern with pregnant children than spreading the gospel of abortions on demand.
I reject Planned Parenthood and the ACLU’s usurping my role as parent in the management of my children’s health care.
LadyNYC, though I don't like Planned Parenthood much (a bias of mine), your comment is well thought out. Actually, most of your comments are well thought out. Thank you.