Oral sex and head and neck cancer, Baltimore CPC law is struck down, parental notification in New Mexico, making judicial bypass harder on teens, and a cosponsor of the “it’s not rape unless you’re forced” bill says they didn’t mean it that way.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland deserves a medal for seeking to address the geographic (and often economic) disparity in access to abortion in a smart and safe way.
Parental notification and consent laws are sold as a public good and as protection for teenagers, but are really only about humiliating and punishing them.
An Illinois judge has issued a temporary restraining order delaying enforcement of a law requiring doctors to notify parents of teens who are seeking an abortion. The order was issued in response to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union, and will remain in effect until hearings on why the law should not be put into effect.
While parental notification laws are intended to protect young women, they assume that all young women can safely involve their family in the decision to terminate a pregnancy.
Last night the television show Boston Legal attempted to address parental consent laws for abortion. Let me just say that to root a story about abortion on the perspectives of two older men is, well, interesting.
