Dear Friend,
Last week, the divisive politics of the so-called “culture of life” became even more harmful when the House of Representatives voted to make criminals of doctors, grandparents, and anyone else who helps a minor access abortion services in another state when that minor comes from a state with a parental notification law but can’t realistically turn to her parents. I was proud to vote against this intrusion into private medical decisions.
This is particularly important for California because under the protection of a pro-choice legislature and pro-choice Governors our doctors are able to make private medical decisions in the best interests of their patients without fear of prosecution, jail, or unnecessary government oversight. In California, we do not have a parental consent law because we don’t dare suggest that the decision to have an abortion is ever taken lightly or done in isolation unless it’s absolutely necessary. We don’t pretend that forcing girls who have been raped by their fathers to get their permission to terminate the pregnancy is somehow standing up for “family values.”
But some in Washington, DC think they know better. If passed by the Senate, this legislation would jail California doctors with out-of-state patients unless they inform the parents in person 24 hours in advance of the procedure. If the parents are unreachable, doctors would have to give notice “by certified mail, return receipt requested, restricted delivery to the last known address of the person being notified, with delivery deemed to have occurred 48 hours following noon on the next day subsequent to mailing on which regular mail delivery takes place.” This obstruction of medical decision-making would be a joke if it weren’t so tragic. God help the doctor who is confused by that sentence, because if they get it wrong, they could go to prison for a year.
The best way to reduce the number of abortions in this country is to have comprehensive sex education and provide full funding for family planning so that unintended pregnancies don’t happen in the first place. It’s no coincidence that the abortion rate, which hit a 24-year low when President Clinton left office, has risen since that time.
You can count on me to listen to doctors and educators, and not uninformed zealots, when making decisions that affect the privacy, health, and well-being of American women.
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