Long Live the Chickens, How California Voters Hurt Gilr and Parents on Abortion

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 17, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Long Live the Chickens, How California Voters Hurt Girls and Parents on Abortion

by Laura Echevarria
LifeNews.com Editorial Columnist
November 17, 2008

LifeNews.com Note: Laura Echevarria is a LifeNews.com opinion columnist. She is the former Director of Media Relations and a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee and has been a radio announcer and freelance writer active in local politics.

The chickens won. Really. They did.

California passed legislation regulating the conditions of egg-laying chickens so the chickens won.

And the children of California lost because California’s proposed parental involvement law failed to pass.

Don’t get me wrong. I sympathize with the chickens—I saw the hidden-camera videos posted on various web sites of chickens with barely any room to move and chickens injured by other chickens that were crammed in beside them. I truly sympathized.

But I wonder where the priorities are.

Was it the videos of chickens in distress that swayed people? Was it the sheer number of chickens involved? What was the deciding factor for people when they pulled the lever for chickens?

Do young women have to die at the hands of an abortionist before parental involvement laws can be passed? If so, how many? One, three, ten, twenty? Do they have to be maimed? How many lives have to be destroyed or forever changed before Californians realize that, for such a life-changing decision, parents need to be involved?

Abortion takes a life but it also has the potential to destroy a second life. The risks of abortion include death, infertility, infection, the loss of female reproductive organs due to damage or infection, and clinical depression just to name a few.

A girl of thirteen or even seventeen shouldn’t face these risks without her parents’ knowledge or consent.

A girl of thirteen isn’t going to remember that she is allergic to penicillin or sensitive to latex. A girl of fifteen would likely not remember her medical history. A girl of sixteen may not know that she is sensitive to certain prescription painkillers.

A girl who suddenly finds herself pregnant may have a great relationship with her parents but she would still be terrified to say the words "I’m pregnant" aloud in front of them. A parental involvement law would give parents the opportunity to help their daughter and guide her through the most difficult decision she may ever face.

I know that if the day should ever come that my daughter should face a crisis pregnancy, I would want her to confide in me.

I am her mom and I remember things about her than know one else can. I remember when she had to have stitches when she was five because she fell and cut her ankle. I remember when she seven that she had her appendix removed. I remember vividly the day she knocked herself out walking into a fire hydrant when she was only three.

I know she is terrified of needles. I know that she can get nervous at the doctor’s office. I know how much she weighs and how tall she is.

I know all of these things and so many more because I am her mom.

No doctor can assess my daughter and know everything there is to know about her in less than ten minutes. And that lack of knowledge has the potential to kill or maim.

Parents have the right to know if their minor daughter is thinking about having an abortion.

But in California, it was the chickens who gained and the parents who lost.

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