07-07-95 Parental Notification Vote Outrageous

The following letter was addressed to State Senator Vincent Leibell and is printed at the writer's request.

Dear Senator Leibell:

Speaking for the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion and the pro-choice voters it represents, I wish to tell You that we are outraged that you voted yesterday to impose mandatory parental notification on minors who need an abortion.

Observers who witnessed the voting mentioned that, in explaining your vote on the floor, you agreed that it was a bad bill, but said you would support it because it is a one-house bill. A bad bill is a bad bill - and the courage of the Assembly in refusing to pass a dangerous piece of legislation should not be viewed as license to vote for such a bill in the Senate. That it is a one-house bill is simply not justification for a vote.

We are profoundly disappointed that you have missed another opportunity to divorce yourself from the most extreme anti-choice forces in this state, the Christian Coalition, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, the Catholic Conference, and Right to Life, all of whom lobbied heavily in favor of this bill.

The bill's proponents focus on parents' rights to know when their daughters are having a medical procedure, but their real goal is preventing these pregnant minors from terminating pregnancies. 'The people who need help and support from government are not the parents, but the daughters who don't wish to become mothers. With your vote for mandatory parental notification, you have turned your back on pregnant teenagers.

You have voted to put them at great risk, including beatings from furious parents, delayed abortions, the horrors of negotiating the Family Court system, insensitive treatment from antichoice judges, and of course the ultimate, coerced motherhood. You have voted to put physicians, who take seriously their responsibility to their minor patients, at risk of criminal prosecution if they refuse to notify their minor's parents against her will. Please explain who benefits from parental notification beyond the special interest anti-abortion groups.

As your recent vote to deny Medicaid-funding of abortions, your vote to restrict access to competent medical care for minors is a vote you should be ashamed of If the words "wrong" or "immoral, apply in this context, it is to laws passed to block the procedure and to lawmakers who vote for them.

Polly Rothstein President, Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion, Inc.

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