Editorial

Florida minors cannot get body piercing, be married or be employed on a movie set without parental consent, but a girl can terminate a pregnancy without her parent's approval - or even their knowledge - in the Sunshine State.

This is the immoral and illogical state of the law in Florida today because the state Supreme Court has repeatedly overturned laws to require parental involvement in minors' abortion decisions. And it's long past time to ensure that the state does not stand between parents and girls who are struggling with an unplanned pregnancy.

The Florida Legislature got off to a quick start last week with the House of Representatives adopting a state constitutional amendment to require parental notice when their underage daughters desire to have an abortion. The House legislation, with further action pending in the House as we go to press March 8, may result in putting the matter before voters in November.

As is typically the case with the Florida Legislature, the House and Senate leadership do not entirely agree on the best language to address this matter, although there appears to be a desire in both bodies to reach a compromise soon. The Senate is expected to act on its version of the constitutional amendment early in the 2004 session of the Legislature.

The constitutional amendment would overturn a 2003 decision of the Florida Supreme Court which found that the 1999 Parental Notice of Abortion Act violated the state constitutional privacy rights of girls desiring to have an abortion. Reacting to the court's decision, Gov. Jeb Bush wisely said, "Put aside all the legal stuff, it is just hard to imagine we live in a society where parents wouldn't be notified of an abortion." (For more about the Supreme Court decision see, "State Supreme Court strikes down parental notification abortion law," Florida Baptist Witness, July 17, 2003.)

The pro-abortion lobby reacted with anger at the prospect of a constitutional amendment protecting parents' right to be involved in abortion decisions of minors.

"The implications of this are vast and harmful. Frankly, this means children or minors are chattel or property of their parents," hyperventilated Stephanie Grutman, executive director of Florida Planned Parenthood (the McDonald's of the abortion industry), in a Feb. 17 Miami Herald article. According to a March 6 South Florida Sun-Sentinel article, Rep. Anne Gannon (D-Delray Beach) said that parental notice was unnecessary because 90 percent of girls who get an abortion already talk with their parents. I guess the other 10 percent of girls and parents don't count.

The debate on parental involvement comes on the heels of a Feb. 19, 2004, report from the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute surveying abortion among teens in the United States. Although the report finds that abortion and pregnancy rates of 15-19 year old girls have been declining (along with abortion rates in general), the survey should be troubling news for Floridians because the Sunshine State is still a very dangerous place for the unborn, especially for those of teen mothers. Florida ranks seventh in the nation in teen abortion rate (abortions per 1,000 girls age 15-19) and ninth in teen abortion ratio (abortions per 100 pregnancies ending in abortion or live birth among girls age 15-19). Because the data is not required by the state, AGI estimated the rates and ratios of abortion among teens in Florida.

Meanwhile, the pro-life Americans United for Life (www.unitedforlife.org) in a report released Jan. 14, 2004, ranks Florida 32nd in the nation in its protection of the unborn. One of the reasons the Sunshine State comes out so poorly in this study is the lack of a functioning parental notice statute (thanks to the Florida Supreme Court).

The decline in abortion in America - down 17 percent 1990-1999 in the 46 states reporting - is clearly related to the adoption of modest state abortion regulations during the 1990s. Michael New, a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, found that requiring informed consent, parental involvement, restricting government funding of abortion and state bans on partial-birth abortion have resulted in fewer abortions.

Although parental involvement is the least likely indicator in depressing abortion incidence, New writes, "parental involvement laws do appear to reduce overall abortion rates and ratios... ." New believes that the longer these abortion regulations are in place the greater their influence will be on reducing abortion. (For more, see "Analyzing the Effects of State Legislation on the Incidence of Abortion During the 1990s," The Heritage Foundation, Jan. 21, 2004, and "States of Success," National Review Online, Jan. 22, 2004.)

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Rep. Gannon bemoaned the parental notice constitutional amendment because it would make abortions harder to get. What exactly would be wrong with that? After all, Gannon and her fellow travelers are really for "choice," aren't they? Contrary to their PR rhetoric about "choice," these advocates really believe abortion is a good thing - something that should be protected and celebrated, not limited and shunned.

This is precisely why the pro-abortion lobby fears a parental notice requirement in Florida - they don't want to see the abortion rate and ratio drop. In fact, they would be happy for both indices to go up!

Florida statutes are littered with common-sense laws requiring parental consent for all manner of minor activity in the Sunshine State. As properly recognized with body piercing, marriage, acting and numerous other laws, children are the responsibility of their parents. It is immoral for the state to encourage minors to engage in a physically, emotionally and spiritually damaging medical procedure without the involvement of their parents.

As the legislature moves toward passage of legislation to put parental notice on the ballot this November, let your legislators know it's time to end the immoral and illogical situation which allows girls to make the abortion decision without parental involvement.