BREAKING: PARENTS ALLOWED TO MAKE PARENTAL DECISIONS (EVEN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE)

This week in New Hampshire there was a major victory for the parents of that state.  The legislature passed a law requiring parental notice 48 hours before minors can receive abortions.  Governor John Lynch, ever the good democrat, vetoed the measure.  Belief in this bill was strong though, and the legislature overrode the veto - 266-102 in the House and 17-7 in the Senate.  In ultra-blue New Hampshire.  To borrow a phrase, unflippingbelievable!


This is a major victory for parents in the Granite State.  In 2003, there was a parental notification law on the books, but it went unenforced and was eventually repealed four years ago mainly because there was no judicial option.  The key to the current law is that girls can go before a judge sans parents and get permission in certain cases - but even this is an unacceptable option for Planned Parenthood (via PPNNE Action Fund):

Under HB 329, a young woman who cannot tell a parent about her unintended pregnancy would be forced to stand in court and explain her circumstances to a judge. This intimidating court process could delay medical care and put young women’s health at risk.

What do you think the odds are that there will be an up-tick in girls who "fear violence or retaliation at home" and are seeking judicial waivers for parent-free abortions?  On a side note, from the looks of that article in PPNNE, someone should look out for a little extra something in his reelection fund for his valiant effort...

Yet again, Planned Parenthood is hiding behind the guise of "women's health" and how it's "at risk" with these proposed regulations.  For all the talk about women's health being "at risk" from anti-abortion policies, they certainly shy away from giving those same women the real facts about the health risks of abortions (check out the differences between the two links in the 'risk'category).  The fact is, an abortion is a surgical procedure, with all of the potential risks of any other outpatient procedure, including infection and hemorrhaging.  Both of those are potentially lethal.  If my child can't get an aspirin from the school nurse for a headache without my say-so because of state guidelines, why in hell can she have a surgical procedure without my written consent? 

As for the argument that there are girls who "fear violence and retaliation in the home", those girls might very well be victims of rape or abuse at home; perhaps making them wards of the court for the purpose of abortion might be the first step in calling attention to and addressing abuses at home.  Those girls don't know where to go or who to turn to.  Enabling secret abortions may only perpetuate their misery.  The Lila Rose project illustrates how concerned PP is for underaged girls being impregnated by 30-something men.  Just keep your mouth shut and get your abortion, honey.  We don't want to know.

Well as a parent I, for one, do want to know.  It is my right as a parent, until that child turns eighteen, to know of and approve of every surgical procedure, prescription drug and doctor appointment my child requires. 

Let me see if I've got this straight.  According to democrats, my under-aged child should have sole responsiblity for making adult decisions including which surgical procedures she should undergo, but when it comes to things like, oh, say...health insurance, mommy and daddy are the go-to people until junior hits adulthood at the tender young age of twenty-six. 

Riiiight.

Read more...

BREAKING: PARENTS ALLOWED TO MAKE PARENTAL DECISIONS (EVEN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE)

MARIA TALKS TRASH

The state of Massachusetts has been forking over $100,000 per year to the AIDS Action Committee, which in turn funnels a portion of that money into a web site called Mariatalks.com, which is a teen-friendly site focusing on sex ed.  It answers questions ranging from birth control to STDs and everything in between in a candid, teen to teen way.  But where the two sites differ is a doozy, so much so that it makes PP look almost conservative.  (Please note the 'almost' - but more on that later)

In a report in the Boston Herald:

Maria tells teen readers abortion is a “hot topic” but that the procedure is “more common than you might think” and “safe and effective, though some people may experience temporary discomfort.” The site’s discussion of risk is limited to advising that it is better to get an abortion sooner rather than later.

Planned Parenthood, by contrast, at least mentions the possible side effects, such as “infection,” “blood-clotting,” “injury to the cervix or other organs,” and “an incomplete abortion.”  Gee, it doesn't seem to be such a walk in the park now, does it?  This might have some repercussions!  As for the psychological issues, Maria counsels that it:

“can be pretty tough for some people, especially emotionally.”

Oh wait, that's what she said about adoption.  Here's what she said about abortion:

...one of her fictional friends found it a “difficult decision” but decided the procedure was the “best choice . . . for herself, her boyfriend, her family and her future.”

Yup, just a choice; no deep thinking here!  No guilt, no sadness, no second thoughts - it's the best choice!  It's the only choice! The hardest part about it is the decision, really.

But if it's no big deal, why is it such a difficult decision?  It's not like there's a life hanging in the balance, right?

Which brings us to facilitation:

“The reality of getting an abortion is much easier than it sounds here.”

Really?  How easy?  After all, MA state law requires parental consent for any girl under the age of 18 to get an abortion.  No problemo, good ol' Maria has an answer for everything, including the caveat for my praise of PP's site that I mentioned in the first paragraph (emphasis mine):

Maria notes that state law allows minors to skirt that approval through a confidential judicial hearing, saying, “I know it sounds crazy . . . this really can be done and young women do this all the time here in Massachusetts.”


The site then directs teens to Planned Parenthood, saying that agency will either help them talk to parents or provide a lawyer to guide them through the judicial process.

PP is now offering underaged girls lawyers so they can get secret abortions?  Who's paying for that?  It would be nice to know that no taxpayer dollars are going into that kitty.  As the parent of two daughters, this enrages me.  This movement to help our underaged daughters obtain abortions in secret has to stop.  As mentioned above, these surgical procedures bring risks because they're surgical procedures.  If nothing else, parents need to be notified so they can care for their daughter on a medical level, not to mention the many emotional issues she might experience.  The problem is, notifying the parent would give them the opportunity to talk to their child and help her make an informed decision.  Yes, they might be angry.  Maybe disappointed.  Definitely sad.  But for the majority of parents faced with this dilemma, the health and well being of their daughter outweighs it all and they help and support her. 

Unfortunately, what Maria Talks, Planned Parenthood and others are telling our daughters is that making a life-changing decision like abortion and getting a secret judicial bypass (not to mention the abortion itself) is easier than having to tell their parents about it.

Posters for Maria Talks are being put up in high school nurse's offices across the state.  The website has crashed due to the controversy.  One hopes that when it is restored, the segments on abortion will have been purged and replaced with a more realistic, less happy-go-lucky view of the topic, as well as no further reference to bypassing parental consent laws.  That the state is sponsoring a site that facilitates secret abortions for underaged girls is disgraceful.   If the AIDS Action Committee cannot get Maria Talks to remove the information about judicial end runs around parental rights and cannot separate the money they receive from the state from their funding for the site, the state should pull all funding until they can.

As a side note, an investigation into PP's legal defense arm would no doubt be enlightening, too.  How many of those underaged girls seeking judicial bypass for abortions are being molested or victimized in some way, and how many are getting the help they need - and I don't mean an abortion. 

Read more...

MARIA TALKS TRASH

OVERCOMING THE LINE IN THE SAND

The budget debate high drama last week was a real eye opener.  The resulting compromise - a smashing success all the way around when one considers how it seems absolutely no one is happy with it - not only temporarily postponed a potential economic disaster, it also drew a line in the sand.  The democrats made it perfectly clear that they are willing to send the country over the fiscal cliff in order to protect and fund Planned Parenthood.  The republicans managed to get a small concession in the banning of abortion funding for the Washington D.C. area only - something Reid et al bemoaned, even though they have enforced the ban in the past - without republican pressure.

Planned Parenthood claims no federal dollars are spent on abortions.  In that they don't send a bill to Washington for each abortion, okay, yes, the money isn't going straight to abortions; but in that they use the money they receive from taxpayers to pay doctor's and nurse's salaries and the electric bill that powers the suction machine, it certainly is.  Consider, for a moment, smoking in restaurants.  At first, regulations required a seperate seating area for smokers.  Eventually is became evident that even though the smokers were being quarantined, their smoke was not.  In fact, it was permeating every inch, as smoke is wont to do.  And so smoking in restaurants was banned entirely.   The federal funding of Planned Parenthood is like the smoke - it may not be directly used for abortions, but it is ending up that way in the long run by permeating every inch of the organization's day to day expenses.  Let's not forget that federal funding of abortions is barred, according to the Hyde Amendment.  No matter how "compassionate" it might be (it certainly isn't for the baby in question),  banned is banned, period.  Not one thin dime of taxpayer money should go to any enterprise that performs non-emergency abortions on demand.

The fact is, Planned Parenthood is a private enterprise.  It makes a profit each year, and may even be expanding in the near future.  As such, our federal government has no business subsidizing them for anything, let alone abortions. Perhaps PP should consider tapping their celebrity friends to assist them in a fundraising drive every year.  Hopefully some of them will donate not just their fame to the cause but actually put their money where their mouths are for a change.  In fact, online donations to PP since the budget battle have increased a whopping 500%.  See?  They don't need federal funding - just whip up some hysteria and voila! it's payday! 

Unfortunately, the furor with which this issue has been met by the left is, as usual these days, over the top to the point of cartoonish.  Republicans are coming to "kill women" according to Rep. Louise Slaughter.  The GOP is out to keep women from health care services, apparently out of nothing more than sheer spite and ideology.  You would think there were no other clinics or health care facilities in the US other than PP, wouldn't you?  It's almost as if, were PP to shut down tomorrow, there would no longer be any abortions available anywhere and Roe v. Wade would somehow, in a miraculously simultanious event, be reversed.

The hysteria has to stop.  The fact that we are giving more than $350 million a year to a private - and profitable - entity is reason enough to end the gravy train.  That it might, even indirectly, pay for abortions with taxpayer funds makes defunding even more imperative.  $350 million a year won't make a big dent in our debt, but when you add it in with other cuts and, most importantly, entitlement reform, it makes a tidy sum.  Much like environmentalists are always urging us to "do your part", no matter how small,  a whole bunch of littles add up to a lot.

The issue isn't access to abortions or women's health care - there are plenty of outlets for both with or without Planned Parenthood.  The issue is money.  Simply put, we don't have any.  And yet democrats keep insisting we continue to fund PP, a private organization, even when it means forty cents of every dollar we give them is borrowed.  It's time Planned Parenthood (and other crony corporations) was weaned from the public teat.

Defunding Planned Parenthood may not happen this year, but there's always 2012 and the potential of not just a Senate flip, but the White House, too.  Good things come to those who wait.

Read more...

OVERCOMING THE LINE IN THE SAND

PLANNED OUTRAGE

Four months ago in Washington state, a 15 year old girl walked into her school clinic and took a pregnancy test.  When the test came up positive, the school put her in a cab and sent her to the local Planned Parenthood clinic. 

Alone.

Her parents were never notified.

The school did not break the law, because her mother had signed a consent form at the beginning of the year that gave permission for the school to send her daughter off premises for treatment.  No, it didn't specify abortion, but under Washington state law, at no age is a child required to inform her parents or get their permission if she wants an abortion.  Her mother, needless to say, was livid.  She found out about it four months later.  She assumed that the form she had signed back in September was in case of a medical emergency, such as a broken bone, or maybe even birth control.  But never did she imagine the school would use that form to facilitate and conceal the administration of an abortion for her child.  A procedure she had to go through completely alone.

That is what really sticks in my craw; as a mom, the thought of that young girl alone in that cab on her way to the abortion clinic breaks my heart.  Once there, she was admonished not to tell her parents, or they would have to pay for the abortion.  That girl faced a major watershed moment in her life alone.  Who was there to hold her and give her comfort after the deed was done?  No one. 

After this experience, she is going to view abortion in one of two ways, and neither one is comforting.

On the one hand, she could see it as not a big deal, and could, in the future, find herself in the clinic again and again.  After all, its no biggie - it's just another form of birth control, right?  It's just a clump of cells, not a baby - isn't that what Planned Parenthood preaches?

On the other hand, she could be emotionally scarred by what she has done and might spend the rest of her life regretting it or beating herself up for it. Abortion is the only clinical procedure out there with the potential to stain your soul.  Did she feel cut off from the main source of comfort a girl that age relies on when things really get tough - her mom?  Who happens to be pro-choice, by the way. She's  not one of those dreaded christian fundamentalists who would have forced the girl to keep the baby clump of cells.   Even if she had wanted to turn to her mom for comfort afterwards, let's not forget that she was admonished not to tell her parents or else they would have to pay the bill. 

This, to me, is the ultimate repercussions of the nanny state.  No longer, it seems, is your child your own to raise and counsel.  At the tender age of 15, she was viewed as an individual capable of mature, adult decisions without  guidance.  Now, we've all been 15, so we all know that at 15, decision making isn't really a strong point, generally speaking.  She needed the advice of someone who loves her, someone who has her best interests at heart.  Considering her mom is pro-choice, it still could have ended the same way even if her parents had been notified - but at least she would have had the comfort of having someone help her through it all.  Instead the state decided that she was a good candidate for abortion, and so abortion it was. 

As the mother of a teenaged daughter, I am appalled by this.  As far as I'm concerned, my child is my responsibility until she turns 18, not the state's, and all decisions regarding her person are her parent's to make.  As of 18, she is an adult and can begin making her own decisions - with a little advice when needed from her dad and me, of course.   The thought of a child of mine, young, scared and alone, going through all of that, trying to process it all...it tears me apart.

The most horrifying part is that soon we will be funding this.

In addition, Planned Parenthood has embarked on a sex ed campaign that is quite remarkable in it's....thoroughness.  Combine the two programs, and you have the stuff of which nightmares are made. Call me old fashioned, but I'm just not comfortable with Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country, being 'in partnership' with our school systems for sex education.

The case in Washington state is the perfect example of a worst case scenario.

Read more...

PLANNED OUTRAGE