By Corie Lahr

In the past four years, three ballot initiatives mandating parental notification for minors to receive abortion services have been defeated by California voters.  Proposition 4 was the most recent re-run of conservative organizations and politicians acting as the moral conscience for women across the United States.  Its defeat on November 4 was close, despite California’s reputation as a “pro-choice” state, with 52.6% voting against and 47.4% supporting the dangerously blind, class-biased initiative (Source: www.noonprop4.org).

If passed, Proposition 4 would have required doctors to notify the parent or legal guardian of a minor (under age 18) seeking to terminate a pregnancy.  This deceiving initiative appears harmless and socially beneficial to many voters who see opening lines of communication between sexually active teens and their parents as a good thing.  But underneath the nuclear family values mantra of Prop 4, a dangerous reality would face many teens if ever enacted.

The proposed law does not account for the unfortunate fact that many teen girls live in homes prone to violence and/or abuse.  Others would avoid notifying their guardian for fear of being kicked out of their home.  Still, some girls have no parent or official guardian, in which case the teen would have to juggle the legal bypass process.  Avoidance of notification results in a rise in unplanned births and unsafe, high-risk, illegal abortions.  Both notification and legal bypasses may delay the abortion procedure, which is extremely time-sensitive and would cause more health risks to the pregnant female the further she progresses in gestation.

What is notification good for anyway?  Unsurprisingly, many teens facing the difficult decision of motherhood already approach their parents for help.  Other teens are at the cusp of legal adulthood, able to make firm decisions about whether or not they can support a child.  Even more, as indicated previously, girls can face domestic violence and extended personal strife if notification is required.  Prop 4 (and its past duplicates) purport idealized family constructions while doing little (if anything) to aid women’s health.

Other states have already passed or proposed many dangerous initiatives that chip away at a woman’s right to health, safety, and privacy in relation to her own body.  The Planned Parenthood website details how 11 states have passed the notification requirement, which Proposition 4 mirrored.  Twenty-five more states require parental notification and consent in order for a minor to have legal access to safe terminations.  California is included in the seven states that have similar requirements written for law, but not enacted.  Only seven other states have no consent or notification laws for minors, including Oregon, New York, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.

A female’s right to choose her body’s stage of reproduction, no matter her age, can be effectively bolstered by both sides of the conventional political spectrum.  A popular bumper sticker reads:  “If you oppose abortion, support family planning.”  Rates of teen pregnancy often link to a lack of thorough sex education (i.e. abstinence-only detours) and can result from restricted access to affordable birth control.  Even China, a country with a GDP a quarter of the United States’, provides free, no clauses birth control and family planning to its voluntary users.  Prop 4 would not have affected teen pregnancy rates—if anything, Prop 4 would have increased teen motherhood.  Individuals’ safety, privacy, and choice was protected this November; let’s never see it taken away in elections to come!