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By Bulletin Editorial staff
October 11, 2006
Fiction is as rife as fact in the discussion over Ballot Measure 43 - whether young women from 15 to their 18th birthday should have to tell their parents when they seek an abortion. Sorting out the truth can reveal some surprises.
Measure 43 would require that a girl's parents or guardians be informed, as noted above, unless a legal waiver were granted or a medical emergency threatened the life of the girl. Additionally, a doctor performing the abortion without proper notification would be subject both to lawsuits and to the potential loss of his or her medical license. The measure would not give a parent the right to prevent an abortion, however, even after notification.
Myths shape the arguments in favor of the measure, to great extent: Common belief has it that those between the ages of 15 and 18 cannot seek other medical procedures without parental consent. That's not true, however. Oregon law is clear in granting young men and women the right to obtain all medical and dental treatment without the consent of their parents. While some physicians may be reluctant to provide it under those circumstances, they are not prevented from doing so by law.
By the same token, a physician today legally can tell a parent when he's treated a minor 15 or older, even if the minor asks him not to. Measure 43 would take a doctor's ethical requirement to provide the best medical care possible and stand it on its head by requiring notification even if he believes it is not in the child's best interest.
No law, including Measure 43, can "fix" families that have difficulty talking about life's problems among themselves. Instead, the measure hampers physicians' ability to provide their patients the best care possible. Rather than add a limitation to Oregon law that providers of other medical procedures already must live with, it carves out abortion as the only area in which the limits apply. It should be defeated.
