Scott Tibbs
blog post
September 24th, 2005

Back to Archived blog posts.

 Parental notification/consent

California Governor Ahnuld Schwarzenegger, who supports keeping abortion legal, has expressed support for a parental notification proposition in California. (See links here, here and here.)

This is one of those areas where pro-abortion absolutists alienate the American people. According to a CBS News Poll between July 29 and Aug. 2, 2005
  • 28% said abortion "should be permitted in all cases."

  • 15% said abortion "should be permitted, but subject to greater restrictions than it is now."

  • 33% said abortion "should be permitted only in cases such as rape, incest and to save the woman's life."

  • 15% said abortion "should only be permitted to save the woman's life."

  • 5% said abortion should never be permitted.
So you have 53% of people who are basically pro-life, with another 15% saying that abortion should be more restricted than it is now. Yet pro-abortion absolutists act as if any restriction on abortion is the death knell of Roe v. Wade. This works to the advantage of pro-life advocates. The American people are turned off when they see pro-abortion absolutists refusing to accept any compromise.

This is one of those times. This has been said and written so many times it has become a cliché, but it makes no sense that a teenage girl has to get parental permission to get her ears pierced but does not need parental permission to have her child killed. Even many people who are pro-choice (including Governor Ahnuld) support things such as parental consent. The pro-abortion answer is to bring up the rare cases where a child may "need" to bypass parental permission, as if the exception disproves the rule in every case.

If pro-"choice" organizations and politicians want to stop hemorrhaging credibility, they need to reconsider their opposition to any and all compromise. Until then, they will always be on defense.