Did you know that a girl in Florida may have an abortion without the consent – or even knowledge – of her parents? We live with this appalling state of affairs not because legislators haven’t tried to adopt parental involvement legislation. In fact, they have passed repeatedly such common-sense legislation, only to be thwarted twice by the Florida Supreme Court and once by a former governor.

On Nov. 2, you will have an opportunity to change this immoral situation. When you go to the polls next month, don’t stop voting after you’ve cast your ballots for president, U.S. Senate, state house seats and other political offices. Proceed to the constitutional amendments, and be sure to vote “Yes” on Amendment 1, the “Parental Notification of a Minor’s Termination of Pregnancy” measure to authorize the Florida Legislature to pass a parental notice law. (While you’re at it, be sure to vote “No” on Amendment 4, an effort to introduce mini-casinos in South Florida – just for starters. For more on Amendment 4, see last week’s Witness for our news and editorial coverage.)

Incredible as it seems, in 2004 our state government still conspires with the abortion industry to conceal from parents the despicable deeds abortionists perform on children – the same kids who can’t take an aspirin, get body piercing or be married without their parent’s approval.

State-sanctioned child abuse of pregnant girls is the deplorable reality today in Florida absent parental involvement laws. Life Dynamics, a Texas-based pro-life organization, reports that according to “the most reliable studies, among girls 15 and younger who become pregnant, between 60 and 80 percent of them are impregnated by adult men.” And Life Dynamics has found an undeniable connection between Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation clinics which conspire illegally to protect adult men who impregnate teen girls by obtaining abortions for the girls, often circumventing state laws requiring parental involvement. For more information, see, www.childpredators.com.

This incoherent and corrupt policy must end.

Left to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood – which has an obscene financial conflict of interest in the matter – or their fellow travelers on the editorial boards of major daily newspapers, girls should continue to be shielded from their parents, as if a baby-killing abortionist can better love and care for their daughters.

After failing to get Amendment 1 eradicated from the ballot, the Florida ACLU and Planned Parenthood have vowed to defeat the measure.

As we report in our article this week, “Florida voters asked to approve parental notice amendment,” starting on page one, Stephanie Grutman, executive director of the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said in a Sept. 2 news release that Amendment 1 “would put politics before the reality of teens’ lives.” Wendy Sears Grassi, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said in an Oct. 12 email urging opposition to Amendment 1, “Planned Parenthood believes it is wrong to force a minor to confide in a parent,” adding that requiring parental notification could result in “back alley abortions.”

Still, even some pro-abortionists can’t get too excited about defeating Amendment 1.

“There’s not much enthusiasm that we can stop this, because it sounds so innocuous,” Sarah Brown, president of the Democratic Women’s Club of Florida, told The Miami Herald Oct. 15. Although she opposes the amendment, Brown said she prefers to concentrate on electing pro-abortion presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry. Admitting to the reasonable nature of Amendment 1, Brown added, “Who doesn’t want to know what their children are up to?”

Such moments of honesty, however, hasn’t stopped a number of Florida newspapers from urging its readers to defeat the parental notification amendment.

Invariably couched as “controversial,” house editorials in the Palm Beach Post, Daytona Beach News Journal and Lakeland Ledger are just three examples of the media’s obsession with protecting the abortion industry.

In an Oct. 5 editorial, the Palm Beach Post opines: “Ideally, teenagers would involve their parents in making such a decision [for abortion], but, despite its supporters’ claims, the amendment does not foster stronger communication between children and their parents. It risks fostering more violence for teens who already have been violated.”

Arguing “voiceless, anonymous girls are more than political bargaining chips,” an Oct. 8 Daytona Beach News Journal editorial warns that not all children are “lucky enough” to have “loving parents” during a crisis pregnancy.

The Lakeland Ledger on Oct. 12 drops the privacy bomb on readers: “Amendment 1 to the Florida Constitution on the Nov. 2 ballot would be the first restriction on the state’s constitutional right of privacy since the voters approved it almost a quarter-century ago. It’s a bad idea.” And I’m sure that Florida voters believed that the right to privacy would be used to interfere with the rights of parents to care for their children when they approved the measure!

Don’t miss the point. We’re merely talking about informing parents – not even requiring their approval – before a girl gets an abortion. Still, that’s too much for the so-called mainstream media. (As an aside, this is yet another example of the importance of alternative media, like Florida Baptist Witness. The information provided by the Witness is a vital way for Florida Baptists to counter the distortions and liberal advocacy of the secular press.)

While 34 states have functioning parental involvement laws, Florida is one of 10 states with laws currently enjoined by the courts. Only six states have no parental consent or notice statutes on the books. The lack of parental involvement in Florida has earned us the 32nd rank of the 50 states with respect to protection of the unborn in a recent study of Americans United for Life, a pro-life legal advocacy group. And, the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute reported Feb. 19, 2004, that Florida ranks seventh in the nation in teen abortion rate and ninth in teen abortion ratio.

But, you may ask, do these laws regulating abortion really make a difference? Increasingly, the evidence demonstrates that pro-life laws do have a critical effect on the prevalence of abortion.

In a Jan. 21, 2004, study, Michael New, a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, found that parental involvement and other state abortion restrictions have resulted in fewer abortions during the 1990s.

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.)

The reason the abortion industry stands against Amendment 1 is clear: parental involvement laws result in fewer abortions – and that’s bad for its evil business.

Some pro-life citizens wonder if there is anything they can do to change America’s Culture of Death. The simple answer is: Yes, you can make a difference. In Florida, that starts with putting parental involvement in our laws. And, the first step to seeing this come to fruition begins at the ballot box next month. The next step is passage by the Florida Legislature of a new law next spring.

We can do more than just curse the darkness of the wicked abortion industry. When you go to the polls Nov. 2, be sure to vote YES on Amendment 1.