Molly Tafoya's blog

Parental Notification Effort in California

2008-04-21T09:50:01-04:00

Parental notification for abortion is a hot button issue -- and could face California voters in the November election. Activists had until last Friday to collect enough signatures to put this issue on the ballot in November. Supporters of the parental notification amendment have rallied major financial contributors to support this initiative for the third time in three years. Signatures are still being counted, but because of the serious implications on reproductive health policy for teens, it's worth taking a close look now at the consequences the proposed amendment would have.

This amendment would require parental notification and a 48-hour waiting period before a young woman could obtain an abortion. If a doctor performs an abortion without first notifying the young woman's parents, she or he would be fined. On its face, the amendment appears harmless -- it only requires notification, not parental consent. You might guess that its aim is to encourage dialogue between parents and their teenage children. Indeed, the text of the amendment reads:

"the People of California have a compelling interest in protecting minors from the known risks of secret abortions...The People also have a compelling interest in preventing sexual predators from using secret abortions to conceal sexual exploitation of minors"

suggesting that the state is attempting protect minors suffering from sexual abuse. But "from a real world perspective, these laws are not benign," says Maggie Crosby, staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. "While there is a legal difference between consent and notification," Crosby notes, "they are virtually the same thing for many young women in this situation." In reality, the proposed amendment intends to reduce incidence of abortion by promoting parental intervention in teens' medical care.

For teenagers who already have an open relationship with their parents, this amendment is null. However, it has the potential to seriously harm teenagers who do not have that kind of relationship. While there are amendment does offer exceptions, including one for the life of the young woman, Crosby points out that the scenarios the amendment anticipates are unrealistic. If a young woman goes to court and can prove to a judge that she is "sufficiently mature and well-informed to decide whether to have an abortion," then she doesn't have to notify her parents. Finally, if she can prove that there is a history of abuse in her family and that, by telling her parents about her intentions to have an abortion, she would be put at risk, she can waive the notification requirement by filing claim against the abusive parent.

But obtaining a judicial waiver is time consuming and intimidating. It requires time off from school, transportation to and from the court on two separate occasions, and requires having a face-to-face conversation with a judge to prove maturity. The abuse exception, too, is an irresponsible and unrealistic response to a very real concern. A young woman seeking abortion care is required to file an abuse claim against her abusive parent in order to waive the parental notification requirement. Essentially, it would require her to turn over an abusive parent to the authorities during an already stressful time. "This is a dangerous option for a teenager that it's impossible to think that it would really be invoked in the real world," says Crosby.

Mandating communication can only harm young women who need timely access to comprehensive reproductive health care. If these activists ultimately wish to protect young women, they would remove any barriers to a woman's right to obtaining safe and legal abortions. But that's not their goal. Instead, this is a thinly veiled attempt to curb women's reproductive rights. This amendment does nothing to address the root causes of teenage pregnancy, including access to comprehensive sex education and contraception, and the lack of funding for programs that provide these resources.

With this issue reappearing on the ballot for the third time, a coalition of supporters has signed on to fight this amendment. The first two amendments, Proposition 73 and Proposition 85, were both defeated at the ballot because of coalition support and massive public education campaigns. This year groups like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the ACLU affiliates in California have again joined in support of Campaign for Teen Safety, the grassroots organization aimed at defeating this amendment. Californians should know by mid-May whether or not voters will see this issue on their ballots yet again in November.

Dow Closes Down 2.93%

2008-02-05T17:54:01-05:00

I just received my trusty New York Times Afternoon Alert saying that the Dow closed down today 2.93%. Now I don’t know much about the stocks, except that my entire happiness after 65 is relying on a robust market, but I do know that this is bad. With all focused on the war in Iraq, health care and immigration, the economy is starting to wail with tell-tale middle child syndrome symptoms. Have we forgotten about the impact that 7 years of ineptitude and gross overspending on “national security?” Of course, I am preaching to the choir here on RH Reality Check about these issues, but it seems like the economy, as well as other former hot button issues like abortion, have gotten lost this year. This is not to say that “new” issues like the environment and same-sex marriage have aren’t 100% deserving of the attention they are getting by our candidates, but if we don’t focus on a wider range of issues (and the media is mostly to blame for the coverage they provide), these “forgotten” issues will begin to rear their ugly heads in much the same way that the Dow is today.

Goodbye to What, Exactly?

2008-02-05T14:07:31-05:00

Robin Morgan's Goodbye to All That, #2 is driving me crazy.

It’s so striking, but it epitomizes my problem with the invidious media rhetoric that has dominated this election season. STOP PITTING GENDER AGAINST RACE! Stop ignoring multiple realities and realize that 2008 is a year of change, and that these paradigms that pundits and political correspondents are perpetuating are old fashioned and irrelevant. It’s time to move forward.

My Vote Finally Counts

2008-02-05T12:47:05-05:00

I just voted and I couldn't be more excited! I was shaking as I marked my candidate's name. This is civic engagement at its finest and I feel a real camaraderie with other people my age. We're NOT apathetic. We are a force to be reckoned with. I know I shouldn't be saying this but for the first time in my life, I feel like my vote finally counted. I grew up in Hawaii and it seemed like every election, the results were called before our polls even closed (aside from 2000, that took weeks, remember?). But now, as a proud resident of California, my vote actually mattered on Super Tuesday! I can't wait for the results to start pouring in.

Let's Really Talk About Sex

2008-01-09T09:02:30-05:00

I was lucky. "The talk" with my mother was relatively painless. I have a very progressive mother with very informed opinions, and as a single mother she knew what she wanted and didn't want for her daughter. She did her part, but I am of the opinion that it takes a village to raise a child and that my village tried...but fell flat, and the reasons are different than what you might expect.

There are so many ideas about what makes sex education comprehensive. Unfortunately, the current administration has decided that abstinence-only-until-marriage education is the most comprehensive despite the fact that it's the least effective. Luckily, my educators did not feel the same way. My problem with the sex education I received had little to do with content, which was fairly comprehensive, and more to do with the delivery.

The way sex was presented to me was something shameful and embarrassing, more of an awkward chore than an essential component of a young person's education. In the fifth grade, I learned about human sexuality and the fascinating processes of the human body as well as ways to protect myself against STD's by using condoms and abstaining. But it was SO AWKWARD. What I remembered most about that day was my teacher trying to hide her face. She was so painfully embarrassed by the whole situation that she didn't say a word and just put in a video. I learned about sex by a cartoon duck who didn't teach me how to talk about sex, just what sex is. There is so much more to it though. Yes, obviously, it is a physical encounter between people, but when you start thinking about all of the emotional and religious justifications our paternalistic government has come up with to rationalize their abstinence-only agenda which would "protect" our young people (read: our defenseless little girls), there is clearly much more to sex than physical contact. I don't agree with the agenda, but it's pretty clear that sex is complicated.

The sex education that I received in high school was basically the same as in the fifth grade with a few more details and a condom demonstration that was ridiculous. No one took it seriously, and to be perfectly honest, it was about one year too late for many of the girls in my tenth grade class. Was it useless? Absolutely not. I learned what I could and appreciated the fact that I was getting a comprehensive lesson. But looking back, what I remember most was the embarrassment and the angst we all felt, especially our teacher.

Alternatives? Solutions? Yes! Sex needs to be discussed in an environment like the one my mom and I had. Questions were answered and encouraged, not shunned or averted, or answered by cartoon rubber duckies. Young men and women deserve to have meaningful conversations about sex in a learning environment so that they can foster an awareness that sex is something to be taken seriously but, if given the information and the resources, it can be safe and fun. It's the same with other classes. You learn about a subject and then you're expected to make rational conclusions and give an analysis of the situation. Sex is well...sexier, than that sounds but the philosophy is still consistent. It's crucial that young people feel that they can talk about sex, and not in the "Dude, I got lucky last night" way, or the "sexual intercourse involves the sexual organs of two individuals." It needs to be more of a dialogue between educators and us.

I wish I didn't sit there praying the class would end. I wish I would have asked what happens if the condom breaks? How much is birth control? Are there any pills for the boys? Can I get AIDS through kissing? When, exactly, am I fertile? Can I buy condoms if I'm under 18? These questions may seem silly, but they were real for me at 15 years old. I learned the basics about sexual intercourse, but I was ashamed to be asking some very poignant and relevant questions. I had internalized shame and guilt. My education failed me. Sex is not bad! It's not evil and it doesn't have to be dangerous. I didn't ever learn that from that damn cartoon duck.

Remember sex-ed in high school? The young people from around the country who’ve submitted their videos to our Fresh Focus: Sex Ed Digital Video Contest do! And they have a lot to say on the subject! From artistically breath-taking to just plain hilarious, these videos tell the individual and collective stories of young people about the sexuality education they’ve had, the sex-ed they wish they’d had or the way they envision sex-ed for the future!

Starting today, each day we’ll feature one or two of the top ten video in a blogpost on our site. All you need to do is VOTE for your top THREE favorites!!