Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991 TAG: 9103061104
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHRYN B. HAYNIE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Four bills that would have restricted minors' access to medically safe abortion services were killed during the 1991 General Assembly session. A growing number of legislators recognize so-called "parental notification" measures for what they really are: a primary component of the anti-abortion agenda to incrementally restrict choice in our state and nation.
Virginia's leaders increasingly understand that family communication cannot be legislated and that such laws endanger the lives of young women in need of medical services. They know Virginians do not support government interference in the most personal and private of decisions.
In her letter Feb. 14, Elyssa Wright claims that laws mandating parental consent or notification for minors seeking abortion result in both fewer pregnancies and few abortions to teen-agers. Her position is not substantiated by statistics from state health departments in Minnesota, Missouri, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, where such laws were in effect. In fact, the facts present a grim picture of the tragic consequences that often follow passage of such laws.
In testimony to the General Assembly in January 1991, Katherine Connor of the National Women's Law Center revealed the following:
In Massachusetts, where a strict parental-consent law has been enforced since 1981, the abortion rate for 15-to-19-year-olds has steadily risen in the second half of the 1980s to a high of 28.4 in 1988 (compared to a rate of 22 in Virginia).
A dramatic increase in out-of-state abortions, which are not counted in a state's abortion rate, has been documented in studies done in Massachusetts, Missouri and Rhode Island.
In Missouri, second-trimester abortion rates climbed from 16.8 percent in 1980 to 20.4 percent in 1989; the teen birth rate shot up from 31.5 to 37.2 per 1,000 births, the highest rate in the state in all of the 1980s. The teen-pregnancy rate in 1989 was 53.3, almost exactly the same as before the law went into effect.
These findings are consistent with what Roanoke Valley residents believe would happen if a mandatory-notification law were enacted in Virginia. The 1990 Roanoke Valley Poll found:
> Seventy-three percent think more teens would have back-alley abortions or try to do it themselves.
Eighty-two percent think teens in troubled families would be subjected to physical or emotional harm.
Teen-pregnancy and abortion rates will not be lowered by passing restrictive laws. Comprehensive family-life education programs, improved access to birth control, and healthy, honest family communications about sexuality have been shown to reduce unintended-pregnancy rates. We owe it to our young people to devote all of our energies and resources to prevention. We can do no less!
by CNB