Pro-Abortion Secret Memo Reveals Plan to Promote Teen Abortions
by Paul Nowak
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
December 18, 2003
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates always argue the rights of the mother over the rights of the child — until the child has been born. They have fought repeatedly for the "right" of minors to have access to abortions without the consent or notification of their parents.
With the internal strategy memos obtained from the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), the astonishing plan of how far pro-abortion groups are willing to go, in the US and abroad, has come to light.
The memos refer to the "project to secure the fundamental right of minors to access all reproductive health services confidentially" as having "always been one of our priority areas."
CRR admits that part of its plan for an international right to abortion is "undoing the notion that parental rights are an adequate justification for imposing additional burdens on minors seeking abortions or other reproductive health care."
In addition to "staving off efforts to require parental involvement for minors seeking contraception and abortion," the pro-abortion strategy is to emphasize minors’ rights over parental rights, "ensuring minors’ ability to consent to all reproductive health services," and "establishing minors’ right to comprehensive information about reproductive and sexual health."
Ultimately, they are preparing to give minors the same rights as adults, even a right to be sexually active.
"We will likely have to confront the politically difficult issue of whether minors have a right to have sex (and more generally, whether minors should be treated as adults)," admits the CRR in the document.
The strategy is not above redefining abuse for reporting purposes, as they have also set their sights on "undoing child abuse reporting requirements with respect to non-abusive sexual relations," which would include statutory rape.
The pro-abortion law firm also admitted the pro-abortion movement faces significant opposition.
"In terms of parental involvement for abortion we have a large body of federal case law against us (which makes our campaign harder)," the CRR document states. Elsewhere, it continues, "There is growing opposition amongst minors to abortion and being pro-choice (or at least a national pro-life campaign aimed at teens that is garnering more public attention)."
The organizers of one web site aimed at helping educating teens and helping them find abortion alternatives say they appreciate the nod.
"StandUpGirl.com, though completely outgunned financially by organizations like Planned Parenthood (and sites [that promote sex and abortion]), has managed to attract almost 3 million young women in the past 2 and a half years," Paul Harmon of Oregon Right to Life told LifeNews.com "We have learned how to very efficiently reach our target audience. Such efficiency helps to some degree to mitigate the enormous financial advantage Planned Parenthood enjoys."
"If they are worried about us at our current strength, they must be becoming wealthy but very hollow organizations," Harmon concluded.
However, the pro-abortion campaign is prepared to increase their efforts to overcome opposition from minors, their parents, and the courts.
"We are seeing the antis push hard to diminish minors’ rights, so we should see what we can come up with to push hard back," states the document.
According to the internal memo, pushing back means major medical groups will be consulted in order to develop public policy establishing minors’ competency and need of confidentiality. Where gaps are found in evidence supporting their position, pro-abortion groups will "fill in the gaps with additional studies, development of expert witnesses."
Their strategy for litigation will be threefold, to "bring facial challenges to non-abortion consent and confidentiality issues," and "as-applied challenges to parental involvement for abortion laws in federal court," and use "state courts cases to establish rights for minors."
Finally, as the document details an international pro-abortion strategy, CRR will "develop an international component" to their plan to undermine parental rights here in the U.S.
