Scant Drop Seen in Abortion Rate if Parents Are Told

[Digitonomy]

Unfortunate news about the effectiveness of such laws.

“It’s one of the few areas that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed states to legislate, so it’s become a key for lowering the abortion rate,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee. Ms. Balch said she believed that consent laws were effective.

Yet the Times analysis of the states that enacted laws from 1995 to 2004 — most of which had low abortion rates to begin with — found no evidence that the laws had a significant impact on the number of minors who got pregnant, or, once pregnant, the number who had abortions…

But some workers and doctors at abortion clinics said that the laws had little connection with the real lives of most teenagers, and that they more often saw parents pressing their daughters to have abortions than trying to stop them. And many teenagers say they never considered hiding their pregnancies or abortion plans from their mothers.

Source

 

[WanderAimlessly]

Looks like some are disputing the Times on this:

Heritage Scholars Dispute N.Y. Times Abortion Study

Scholars at the conservative Heritage Foundation are disputing the conclusions of a study newly released by The New York Times that claims parental notification laws have little impact on state abortion rates.

The Times analysis involved six states that introduced parental-notification laws in the last decade. It found divergent trends.

Full Story

 

[mike182d]

The New York Times manipulated data and presented a false study to further their agenda?!

I’m shocked I tell you…

 

[Eileen_T]

I have heard it before but it bears repeating… the media are a bunch of idiots in search of a village.

 

[Jennifer123]

mike182d:

The New York Times manipulated data and presented a false study to further their agenda?!

I’m shocked I tell you…

Yes - one must really be vigilant to educate themselves in the truth these days, especially in the pro-life realm. There seems to be so much justification disguised as “science”.

 

[Digitonomy]

Jennifer123:

Yes - one must really be vigilant to educate themselves in the truth these days.

Very true. Unfortunately, we have evidence that recent parental notification laws have not been very effective. And then we’ve got a criticism of that study which seems to boil down to the data provided by the health departments of the same states that passed the law being faulty. The references to the CDC and NARAL are non-specific (I couldn’t find such a statement on the CDC website), and I’d have to take NARAL’s claims with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, there’s no real detail from the tabloid site Newsmax, so we either have to accept Professor New’s criticisms on faith alone, or not.

 

[masondoggy]

They really are missing the point. Parental notification laws aren’t about reducing the # of abortions. It’s about parents rights to raise their children. Of course, parental notificaiton isn’t enough if the kid tells the parents and the parents still have no say in the situation.

They’re just grasping at whatever they can to try and prove that parental notification laws are bad.

 

[jebojora]

You also have to realize that a lot of parents are pro-choice and may want their children to have abortions. Just telling the parents doesn’t mean no abortion would happen.

I know parents who have said they’d encourage their child to have an abortion if they are too young. As a matter of fact, there are those who would encourage it even when their child is older such as in college or just establishing a career.

So, parental notification is just that…the right of the parent to “know!”

 

[estesbob]

jebojora:

You also have to realize that a lot of parents are pro-choice and may want their children to have abortions. Just telling the parents doesn’t mean no abortion would happen.

I know parents who have said they’d encourage their child to have an abortion if they are too young. As a matter of fact, there are those who would encourage it even when their child is older such as in college or just establishing a career.

So, parental notification is just that…the right of the parent to “know!”

In my experience in counseling pregnant teens it was usually the Parent forcing their daughter to have an abortion. The duaghter knew intinctively there was life in her-the Parents just wanted to avoid being embarassed.

 

[masondoggy]

estesbob:

In my experience in counseling pregnant teens it was usually the Parent forcing their daughter to have an abortion. The duaghter knew intinctively there was life in her-the Parents just wanted to avoid being embarassed.

Unfortunately, this is true. It’s either the parent or the father pressuring the mother to abort. How sad.

My best friend in High School got pregnant when she was 16. She hid the pregnancy until she was 5 months, the point when her mother wouldn’t make her abort. Her sister had previously been pregnant and her mom tried to make her abort. Thank God my friend understood that she was carrying a real baby and not just a blob, even though her own mother didn’t teach her that.

 

[Digitonomy]

masondoggy:

They’re just grasping at whatever they can to try and prove that parental notification laws are bad.

I think the conclusion in the article was not that the laws were bad, but that they were not very effective at reducing abortion rates. From your last post, you would appear to agree.

 

[Jennifer123]

masondoggy:

They really are missing the point. Parental notification laws aren’t about reducing the # of abortions. It’s about parents rights to raise their children. Of course, parental notificaiton isn’t enough if the kid tells the parents and the parents still have no say in the situation.

They’re just grasping at whatever they can to try and prove that parental notification laws are bad.

I think this is a good point - it seems the pro-abort lobby is trying to frame the discussion around this issue, reduction in number, knowing they may have an advantage, when indeed it is mainly about the right of parents to know before their children have a major invasive medical procedure.