SITUATION UNETHICAL: UTAH, BABY DUMPING, ABORTION

Life News.com reports a bill introduced in the Utah legislature that would require teenage women to secure the consent of their parents before getting an abortion. HB 85 sponsor Kerry Gibson (R-Ogden) told the Salt Lake City Tribune that his bill is a parental rights issue. “I’m responsible for anything my child does underage…It’s critical parents give their consent to this.” (abortion) He added that his 10-year old daughter inspired him to write the bill.

What is it with these politicians? Last year we had Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich push through a bill that banned anyone in the state under the age of 21 from getting tats –because they might regret it later. Again “inspired” by his daughters–who are barely old enough to cross the street by themselves much less run over to Body Basics to get inked. Do these political projectors ever ask their kids before using their names in vain? We doubt it.

Rep. Gibson has obviously been asleep at the wheel. In 2001, the Utah legislature rejected the concept of “parental rights””when it passed the state’s safe haven law that lets underage women anonymously abandon their newborns at hospitals and fire stations with no parental knowledge, much less consent.

Gibson, and his 28 colleagues who co-sponsor HB 85, advocate a situational ethic in which a young woman will be required by law to tell her parents about her unwanted pregnancy and get their consent if she wants to terminate it via a legal, private, and safe medical procedure, but is encouraged by law not to tell her parents about an unwanted pregnancy provided she intends to carry to term and abandon her baby “legally” right after undergoing a dangerous, unattended birth.

Can Gibson fall down a rabbit hole and rub his tummy at the same time?

HB 85 is so popular that it passed the House with only 8 dissenting votes. Gibson told the Associated Press,”We’re trying to bring the rights and the decision-making process back into the living room.” Apparently that little living room chat doesn’t extend to baby dumping or death in a cheap motel.

Can we expect Gibson and his friends to introduce a second “parental rights” measure to repeal the state’s “safe haven” law in the name of family values and responsibility?

Bastardette wont’ hold her breath.

Rep. Kerry Gibson
W 30 State Capital Complex
Salt Lake City, UT 84114
801-538-1029
[email protected]

11 Replies to “SITUATION UNETHICAL: UTAH, BABY DUMPING, ABORTION”

  1. I am thrilled that they passed this law. I’m sorry, but a 15 year old cannot vote or drive and she is under the protection of her parents in every other way. She cannot get her tonsils out or even see the doctor without them–why shoudl she be able to get an operation just because she wants to get rid of a child/fetus? I would be furious if my child went and a “responsible adult” performed an operation on her without my knowledge and consent. For any other procedure they would have their license taken away.

  2. So anonymous–you believe it’s OK for the state to teach this same 15 year old that it’s fine and dandy for her to have a secret pregnancy and a secret birth which could kill her and her baby and it’s not her parent’s business? Would you be grateful-NOT furious–if this same adult advised your daughter how to keep her pregnancy from you and then drop the baby off at a hospital anonymously?

  3. I’m the first anonymous,
    The world is not a great place. There are bad things that happen all the time. I hate that but it is a fact. NO ONE should operate on a minor without their family being informed – period. There are programs taht a girl can drop off her baby anonymously – that’s great. There are places she can go, there are people that would adopt, there are ways of preventing it in the first place. You talk like there are no other options for this girl. Not to mention she could tell her parents….woe, what an idea….thuthfulness?
    I’m sorry, but abortion in this case is wrong – even if you believe abotion is okay and a choice an adult can make.

  4. “There are programs taht a girl can drop off her baby anonymously – that’s great”.

    Uh, sure, it’s just great! A young woman can have a ]secret pregnancy with no prenatal care and if she survives giving birth in some undisclosed location, then she can dump her baby at a fire station.

    Said baby will never have any medical history or ever be able to trace their roots. And, the young mom goes home with no therapy or counseling and her life is messed up big time forever when it hits her what she’s done.

    Why on earth does anyone think it is okay to take a baby and let the pathetic, disturbed mother walk off into the sunset? She needs help as much as the baby does. Why ignore her? Oh, that’s right – who the heck cares about her? We want her baby so that some deserving family can adopt it? Opps, sorry, slap me! I forgot.

  5. I find it interesting that cookie wrote “the young mom goes home with no therapy or counseling and her life is messed up big time forever when it hits her what she’s done.” So if she kills her baby without her parents consent she will be free of all these things? Please, the rate on mental/psychological problems after abortion is out of this world—they don’t want you to know that. Oh, right, let’s medicate away the conscience.

    And when you wrote “Why on earth does anyone think it is okay to take a baby and let the pathetic, disturbed mother walk off into the sunset? She needs help as much as the baby does. Why ignore her? Oh, that’s right – who the heck cares about her? We want her baby so that some deserving family can adopt it?” That’s a little ranting there. I don’t think anyone should forget about her at all – that’s why parents should be involved. Do you think councelors will take better care of her? Help her through life? Love her? please

  6. “So if she kills her baby without her parents consent she will be free of all these things? Please, the rate on mental/psychological problems after abortion is out of this world—they don’t want you to know that”

    Not going to get into an abortion debate with you, but not every one considers abortion “killing a baby”.

    I have met many women who have had abortions, most do not suffer lifelong pain as those who relinquish babies to adoption do.
    “Don’t want you to know?” You obviously haven’t checked out the websites of any religiously based pro-life crisis pregnancy centers -they list after affects of abortion that I have only seen in women who choose adoption. Check a few out, they list a whole long list of afteraffects. The only thing that IS hidden is the afteraffects of adoption – and its promoters really don’t want you to know what it does to people. Adoption is still portrayed as this “wonderful” solution.

    Personally, my favorite solution in most cases to an unplanned pregnancy is stepping up to the plate and raising the child. And that is the choice I believe in the most.

    “That’s a little ranting there.”
    So what? I can rant if you can.

    You’re missing the point – if a young woman dumps her baby at a safe haven, she’s most likely doing so cause she’s afraid to tell her family. So, yes, for someone with family that she is too afraid to tell – maybe they are abusive, etc. – she does need counseling from someone else.

    If a woman leaves her baby at a safe haven, her family may never know there even was a family. So, how are they going to help her?

  7. Anon,

    I think you missed the point. This law requires underage girls to get parental consent for an abortion, while current laws allow underage girls to give birth and relinquish for adoption WITHOUT parental consent. (One of) Basterdette’s points is that this is highly inconsistent.

    I’d also like to point out, since it’s not been mentioned yet, that the medical research suggests that for young teens and pre-teens, pregnancy and birth is more medically risky to their phsyical health than abortion is. There was a case not long ago in which a foster girl got pregnant. She wanted an abortion. The state, her legal guardian, refused to let her have one, and said instead that they had the right to take her baby and put it up for adoption, because she was a foster child.

    This foster girl went to court and won the right to have the abortion, largely because she proved to the judge that having an abortion was less medically risky for a girl her age than giving birth was.

    Just some things to consider… from someone who is largely pro-life, by the way.

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