Parental Consent for Teen Abortions

“Justices Uphold Parent Consent in Teen Abortion” (April 5) says that the California Supreme Court has ruled that parents must give permission for their minor daughter to have an abortion or a “judge will determine whether the girl is sufficiently informed and mature enough to decide to have an abortion.”

I wonder who decides whether the girl is “sufficiently informed and mature enough” to carry the pregnancy to term? No one seems to focus on the fact that few girls under the age of 18 are mature enough to make that decision either. Let’s say a parent or a judge decides the girl is not mature enough to decide to have an abortion. By default, however, she is seen as mature enough to carry the pregnancy to term. Does this immature girl suddenly gain the maturity to carry the pregnancy to term and make a decision about raising the child or putting it up for adoption? Or are we to go back to the dark ages of out-of-wedlock history, allowing parents to force the girl to give up the baby for adoption?

LOIS LYONS

Malibu

* A teenage girl is molested or raped by her father. She gets pregnant. And now, thanks to our Supreme Court, she has three choices: to ask her parents’ consent for an abortion, to humiliate herself before the courts and tell some judge what happened, or to spend nine months carrying around the proof of the act. Any of them extends what is already a nightmare.

How appropriate that this law, a perfect example of cruel judges pandering to a hateful mentality and washing their hands of the consequences to the innocent, should be reported on Good Friday.

DOUGLAS GREEN

Los Angeles

* Justice Stanley Mosk’s claim that delaying an abortion decision will not increase the health risk to the mother flies in the face of common knowledge, scientific facts and logic. The idea that lawyers and judges are superior decision-makers to doctors and nurses involved in a specific case is also illogical.

Given that the decision doesn’t make sense from the conventional point of view, perhaps we should try a different type of analysis. Corporations and other private institutions make decisions and take actions (including illegal ones) that benefit the organizations. Perhaps our governmental organi- zations also make decisions based upon how the decisions benefit their organization and the members. Considering that an estimated 14,000 young women per year will be impacted by this decision and that each one will require the time of a judge and probably the services of a lawyer, we can assume that several hours of legal time will be spent on each case. This decision is therefore worth millions to the legal class.

DALLAS E. WEAVER

Huntington Beach

* Up until now abortion has been in a class by itself. The only adult decision that minors can make without parental consent. A minor cannot get married without parental and court permission, but can get an abortion. Minors cannot buy cigarettes, but they can have a living human shredded and sucked from their womb.

As you might have guessed by now, I am against abortion by anyone. This ruling is a small step toward eliminating abortion, but it is a step in the right direction. The reason parental consent has been so bitterly fought is that once the parents know about the pregnancy, in most cases the motivation for the abortion is gone.

STEVE BROWN

Lawndale