Abortion notification debated.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

E l e c t i o n 2 0 0 6

Oregon doctors would be required to notify parents before performing abortions on girls ages 15, 16 and 17 under an initiative voters will be asked to approve in November.

Proponents say the initiative is a common-sense measure that would ensure that parents are involved in a child's life-changing decision. Opponents say it would put vulnerable teens from troubled homes at serious risk.

To comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the measure includes a provision that would allow a girl to petition an administrative law judge to bypass the parental notification requirement.

Current Oregon law prohibits girls 14 and under in Oregon from getting an abortion without parental consent.

Parents should know whether their daughters are contemplating abortion because parents have to deal with the physical and emotional aftermath of an abortion, said Sarah Nashif, campaign manager for the Committee to Protect Our Teen Daughters.

"It's parents that clean up the pieces and just because the girls don't want to disappoint their parents doesn't mean parents should be cut out of the process," she said.

State law already recognizes the need for parental involvement in a young person's life, she said. Schools, for example, can't administer aspirin unless parents provide written permission and provide the medicine.

Bill Sheppard, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon in Eugene, said Measure 43 sounds reasonable at first blush, "but it's not nearly as simple as it seems once you take a deeper look at it."

The best way to reduce teen pregnancies is by teaching sex education early in a young person's life, and by parents instilling values, he said.

"But the reality is, that kind of family communication and positive parental involvement can't be mandated by the government," he said.

For teens who live in homes filled with violence, substance abuse and sexual abuse, "Measure 43 is dangerous," he said. "It puts the most vulnerable teens at extreme risk of possible violence and further abuse."

Under the measure, if a girl requested an abortion, the doctor would be required to send a certified letter to the parent. No abortion could occur until 48 hours after the parent receives the letter.

Any doctor who performed an abortion without parental notification could be sued by the parents and subjected to discipline, including license revocation, by the state Board of Medical Examiners.

Those provisions prompted the Oregon Medical Association to oppose the measure, said Jim Kronenberg, chief operating officer for the doctors' industry group. While indisputably controversial, abortion is a legal medical procedure in Oregon, he said.

"The idea of being able to sue or discipline a physician for performing a medical procedure and respecting the patient's right to confidentiality in a medical care decision in absurd," he said.

Backers and foes disagree on the effectiveness of the "judicial bypass" provision of the law. As written, a girl seeking an abortion who does not want her parents notified could request a hearing before a state administrative law judge.

Sheppard said administrative law judges would be ill-equipped to hear abortion cases because they're usually dealing with technical issues involving permits and licensing disputes, and have no training or experience dealing with issues of sexual abuse, domestic violence or family services.

Stephen Elmore, an administrative law judge for 12 years who now manages the administrative rules section for the Children, Adults and Families division of the Department of Human Services, said abortion cases would make for an interesting change in culture for administrative law judges, but nothing they couldn't handle.

"It doesn't appear to me to be anything out of the ordinary for ALJs," he said. "They handle all sorts of different things. There's no reason to think they couldn't handle something like this as well."

The measure states that the judge "shall" authorize an abortion if he determines that the minor is "mature and capable of giving informed consent" to the abortion, or if an abortion would be in the "best interest" of the girl.

Such hearings could be conducted by telephone, Nashif said. The law is not specific about how a girl would get in touch with a judge, but Nashif said abortion providers could provide contact information.

Sheppard said, "The problem is, you're talking about young teens ... who are facing a crisis who are being given an option of entering an intimidating legal system. Young teenagers who are facing an issue this serious, they need our care and support. They don't need a bureaucratic maze they have to navigate to get the service they desire."

Helena Silverstein, professor of government and law at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., has studied parental consent and parental notification laws, particularly the judicial bypass, in different states.

She said if a minor is able to get herself to a bypass hearing, her chances of getting her request granted are high.

"But the path to a hearing is often blocked by ignorance on the part of court personnel, bureaucratic obstacles or ideological resistance to abortion on the part of judges and court personnel," she said.

In states where the judicial bypass works well, it's usually because abortion providers take it upon themselves to ensure minors have access to a bypass hearing, Silverstein said.

She said Measure 43's permitted use of a telephonic hearing would provide confidentiality and relieve the burden that teens face in other states.

The last time Oregon voters decided a similar issue, Measure 10 in 1990, they rejected it 52 percent to 48 percent. That same year Measure 8, which would have prohibited abortion, was rejected 68 percent to 32 percent.

MEASURE 43 Summary: Requires parental notification when girls ages 15, 16 and 17 request an abortion; girls can ask an administrative law judge to waive the notification requirement Budget impact: The measure would cost the state$112,238 per year Proponents: Oregon Right to Life; the Oregon Family Council; the Oregon Catholic Conference; the Oregon Republican Party; GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton Opponents: The Oregon Medical Association; the Oregon Education Association; the Oregon Nurses Association; the Oregon League of Women Voters; Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat Contact: The pro-campaign, Committee to Protect Our Daughters, can be reached at www.yesonmeasure43.com; or [phone]. The No on 43 Coalition can be reached at www.noon43.com or [phone]