Florida lawmakers will keep rewriting the abortion notification law until the judiciary rules as they like.
Not long ago I wrote a diary about our Florida legislators had their nose out of joint about the abortion notification law for those under 18. I pointed out that an appellate court said the 17 year old was capable of making her decision to have an abortion. This made our legislators livid. They said they would close the “safety valves” that would protect abused girls and difficult circumstances. Here is that diary.
Florida senator threatens to remove “safety valve” from abortion notiifcation law.
Today another legislature says he will start rewriting the law right away. He is another one whom I thought had a little common sense. So I will post the article about his efforts to make sure the courts do as the legislators wish. First though, check out the survey on this issue…maybe take part.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
No is at 54% right now.
Lawmaker Writing Changes to Abortion Law
The teenager argued she should be allowed to have the abortion without telling her parents because having a child would interfere with her education, and she might be told to leave her staunchly Catholic family home. That was enough to satisfy the requirements for a waiver to the notification law, the appeals court ruled.
But state Rep. John Stargel, R-Lakeland, says that’s a misreading of what the waiver clause in the law is supposed to allow.
“The exemption to parental notification was intended to be if there was a physical threat to a girl’s well-being, not simply because it was inconvenient,” said Stargel, who said he will submit the changes in the Florida House prior to the 2006 session, which begins March 7.
So Representative Stargel does not think it would be bad enough that the girl thinks her strongly Catholic parents would kick her out. It sounds good to say that the girl and parents could talk things over, become close and be good buddies. Let’s face it sometimes it just does not work out that way.
He has two things he says need changing, but you can just bet your bottom dollar if a judge allows a minor to have an abortion….they will tighten it again.
for getting a waiver and the time allotted for a judge to make a decision in the case. The changes Stargel will propose are:
Changing the 48 hours a judge has to decide such cases to five business days.
“Under the law, Judge Masters had 48 hours to appoint an attorney for the girl, hold a hearing, make a determination and write her decision or the waiver would be granted automatically,” Stargel said. “There is a concern that some judges opposed to the parental notification could simply exercise a pocket veto by delaying longer than the 48 hours.
Redefining the grounds for exception from the current “best interests of the minor” to “physical well-being” of the minor. Stargel said the “best interest of the minor” clause is far too vague.
“What is the best interest of the child? Mom and Dad won’t buy me a car?” Stargel said. “The clause was written to protect children who could be in harm’s way from a parent if told about the abortion,” he said.
The very oddest part of all of this is the way it has changed my own view of things. We raised 3 daughters, and I always felt that it was something parents should talk over with their daughters. I guess it never occurred to me to be any other way……until I saw the way they have turned this into a political/religious/right wing extremist thing. The lawmakers are playing to their right wing fundamentalist base, and they are going to be allowing some who truly need their privacy on this issue to be hurt. I changed my mind on this when they made it into a political thing.
