Indiana House Passes Pro-Life Bill for Parental Notification Before a Teen’s Abortion

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Dec 26, 2017   |   6:09PM   |   Indianapolis, IN

Indiana lawmakers voted Tuesday to strengthen parental notification requirements involving minors who have abortions.

Currently, Indiana requires girls under age 18 to receive a parent’s permission prior to aborting an unborn baby. However, the girls can request that a judge give them permission instead of their parents. The judicial bypass measure is intended for cases of abuse; however, many believe the abortion industry abuses the measure.

Indiana Senate Bill 404 would strengthen state laws by requiring that parents be notified of the girl’s intent to have an abortion if she requests a judicial bypass, the Luxora Leader reports. Exceptions would be allowed if the judge decides it is in the girl’s best interest not to notify her parents.

The legislation passed the state House on Tuesday in a 75-23 vote, according to the report.

The bill also would penalize individuals caught helping a girl avoid the state parental notification requirements, the report states.

Several Democratic lawmakers opposed the bill, arguing that it could result in more child abuse; however, Republicans said parents should be told if their underage daughter has an abortion so that they know how to care for her afterward.

Parental notification/parental consent laws have strong public support. Currently, 37 states require some type of parental involvement in a minor’s abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. A Gallup poll found 71 percent of Americans support such laws.

These laws can help protect young women from abusive situations. Sexual abusers have been known to take their young victims to abortion clinics when they become pregnant.

SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you like this pro-life article, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!

In 2008, a Planned Parenthood in Bloomington, Indiana was exposed for agreeing to help cover up the sexual abuse of a minor in an undercover sting.

In another case in Ohio, Planned Parenthood faced a lawsuit after it failed to report the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl. The girl’s soccer coach got her pregnant and then took her to the abortion clinic to cover up his crime, LifeNews reported.

Parental notification laws also help protect vulnerable teens from making a hasty, uninformed decision to abort their unborn babies – something they may later regret. And research shows that these laws help save unborn babies from abortions.

Despite the strong public support, abortion activists frequently help teens bypass these protective measures. In 2013, the National Right to Life Committee found in one state in a period of 4 1/2 years, there were 3,573 judicial petitions to bypass parents and only nine were denied.

NRLC’s Mary Spaulding Balch explained previously:

Parents are, for the most part, not given the opportunity to consent, they are not given the opportunity to be consulted, they are totally bypassed. Their minor daughter is given a secret abortion and they are then left in the dark trying to pick up the pieces of their injured daughter’s life not knowing where to begin. The abortion industry masterfully manipulates this judicial bypass loophole by getting their own attorneys appointed by the court to shepherd pregnant minors through the intimidating judicial system and the abortion is performed before anyone can take a breath.

Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other abortion advocacy groups often lobby against parental involvement laws.