From: spartakus{at}my-deja.com

"J Young"  wrote:

> Imagine any other non-emergency medical procedure being performed
> on a child without parental consent. The protest would be rightfully
> angry and loud. The most important decision in this child's life, to
> decide whether her baby will live or die, should be made with the
> love and guidance of her parents.

If a pregnant teenager is afraid of telling her parents about her
condition, and has no way to legally obtain an abortion on her own, the
chances are excellent that she will attempt to self-abort, or that she will
deny her pregnancy and then commit infanticide.  This is why the American
Academy of Pediatrics and the American  Medical Association vehemently
oppose parental notification and consent laws. So do the major medical
journals.

Nobody benefits from parental notification laws, except obsessive wankers
like JYoung/IBen.

Competent minors can consent to medical care in all 50 states, IBen.
>
> http://www.lifenews.com/state2189.html
>
> Boise, ID (LifeNews.com) -- Idaho Gov Butch Otter signed a bill
> Tuesday that would make it so a teenager would not be able to get an
> abortion unless her parents gave their consent. The measure is another
> attempt to put the idea on the books since courts have declared
> previous consent statutes unconstitutional.

LifeNews is useless.  Here's information you can use:

1. In all 50 states and D.C., minors have the right to consent to and
receive confidential treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. This
right is explicitly affirmed by statute.

2. In 46 states and D.C., minors can consent to and receive confidential
treatment for substance abuse.

3. In almost all states, a minor can place her child for adoption without
parental consent.

4. In just over half of the states, she has the right to consent to her own
prenatal care and delivery, including surgical intervention, and can also
consent to her child's health care.  These rights are explicitly affirmed
by statute.

5. In states where this is not codified in the statutes, competent minors
still consent to medical care, and physicians cannot be prosecuted for
battery or other crimes for treating a competent minor.

6. These rights of competent minors have been expanded in recent years, and
recent court decisions have even permitted mature minors to refuse
life-sustaining treatment.

Source: "Exploration for physicians of the mature minor
doctrine," Journal of Pediatrics, 1991 Oct; 119(4):520-525.

Now, from the standpoint of the *patient*, why should abortion be treated
differently from other medical procedures?

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