ARTICLES

You're Paying for Them

Young Girls' Secret Abortions

BY ROBERTO TEJADA

You live in California. You are 12 years old and pregnant. And you want an abortion, but you don't want your parents to find out. What can you do? Just go down to County Social Services and apply for a program called "Minor Consent Medi-Cal." It doesn't matter how much money your parents make, even though you live at home. The taxpayers of California will pay for your abortion, and they'll keep it a secret from Mom and Dad.

Between 1998 and 2002, annual reports by the California Department of Health Services show that more than 30,000 California girls had secret abortions paid for by the state under the Minor Consent Medi-Cal program. Of those, 350 were for girls between 12 and 14 years old. Another 10,173 were for girls between 15 and 17.

The program provides government-funded abortions and birth control as well as treatment for drug and alcohol problems, sexually-transmitted diseases, and post-sexual assault treatment for girls between 12 and 20 years old. There is no low-income requirement, no request for a Social Security number, and girls need only provide their first name. All services under the program are provided without parental notification or consent -- thus the name "Minor Consent."

"A minor must be considered living in the home of a parent to be eligible for minor consent services," explains the Fresno County Department of Human Services on its website.

But, even though the minor must be living at home, "Parental income and property are not counted for this program," according to the Health Consumer Alliance. "There is no share of cost. In fact, these beneficiaries may not be charged any co-payments or other cost-sharing."

"State law and regulations do not allow contacting the parent(s)/guardian(s) of the youth who is applying for Minor Consent services," explains a fact sheet published by the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

Further complicating matters for parents is a November 29, 2004 opinion letter from California attorney general Bill Lockyer regarding whether school districts can require students to obtain written permission from their parents to leave campus during the school day for "confidential medical services." No they cannot, says the attorney general. "A school district," he wrote, "may not require that a student obtain written parental consent prior to releasing the student from school to receive confidential medical services."

The result for parents is that they are being cut off from the medical decisions being made by their children. It is legal in California for a 13-year-old girl to leave her middle school campus, unbeknownst to the parents who dropped her off there that morning, and go to Planned Parenthood for a surgical abortion. Not only does California pay for the abortion and keep it a secret, it requires, according to Lockyer's interpretation of the law, that the state's public schools participate in the cover-up.

As of January 1, California began imposing a $250 fine on anyone who provides body piercing to a minor without a parent's permission. Tattooing a minor without Mom or Dad's permission is also a crime. Under the civil code, no person under 18 can enter into a legally binding contract. State law also prohibits the purchase of cigarettes or alcohol by minors, and efforts are under way to impose newer, stiffer penalties for adults who engage in sex with children.

But, according to agencies that counsel adolescents, "sexual abuse" is a matter of interpretation. "The pregnancy of a minor in and of itself does not constitute a basis for a reasonable suspicion of sexual abuse," explains the Adolescent Health Working Group of San Francisco in its 2003 pamphlet Understanding Confidentiality and Minor Consent in California. The pamphlet also suggests a clever way for professionals dealing with minors to avoid the reporting of sexual abuse altogether: "Providers have no legal obligation to ask about partner's age."

The National Center for Youth Law, in a September 2003 "worksheet" that includes a chart showing when sexual intercourse involving minors must be reported to police or child protection authorities, suggests that a lot of sexual activity between a minor and an adult is not reportable. According to the chart, if your daughter is 14 and has sex with her 20-year-old boyfriend, no report is required. Likewise, no report is required if your 16-year-old daughter has sex with a man of 22. Only when there are big differences between the ages of the minor and the adult does the reporting requirement kick in, according to the National Center for Youth Law. Other sexual acts between minors and adults are reportable "when the activity appears coerced, exploitative, based on intimidation, or in any other way resembles abuse."

Children themselves are also directly receiving information on Minor Consent Medi-Cal. In 2003, the Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles published a pamphlet, also available online, called Sex? Choice for Teens, which was written as an advice booklet for teen-agers. Here is one passage from the booklet: "The only guaranteed way to prevent having a baby is not to have sex. If you choose to become sexually active and you are at least 12 or older, you can receive birth control without your parents knowing you asked about it at: school health clinics, family planning clinics, public health hospitals, county hospitals. Many clinics offer these services for free or at low cost. Also, you may qualify for the Medi-Cal Minor Consent program."

On September 20, 2001, the Children's Social Worker Handbook issued a revision stressing how important it was to keep children's sexual activities a secret from their parents. "It is of paramount importance that the CSW be aware that information regarding the teen's pregnancy is confidential and cannot be released to anyone without her consent. This applies to her family of origin, foster family if there is one, the court, her attorney, the baby's father, and all other persons or institutions."

The legal authority cited for the social workers' handbook revision was a 1997 California Supreme Court decision, American Academy of Pediatrics v. Lungren, which brings us to the convoluted -- almost unbelievable -- way in which California arrived at the current state of the law regarding parents, children, and abortion. In 1987, the California legislature enacted Assembly Bill 2274, approved in the Assembly on a 46-28 vote, and in the state senate on a 25-11 vote, and signed into law by the governor. The bill provided that minors required the consent of one parent or a judicial waiver in order to get an abortion. The law was immediately challenged as unconstitutional by pro-abortion groups who won a stay preventing its implementation until the courts could review it. Lower courts declared the law unconstitutional, and it ultimately ended up before the state supreme court, which heard arguments in January 1996. On April 4, 1996, the high court reversed the lower courts and declared, on a 4-3 vote, that the parental consent bill was constitutional. The decision would have become final 30 days later, but on April 19 opponents filed a petition for re-hearing. On April 22, the court granted an extension until July on whether it would re-hear the case. In the meantime, two of the justices who participated in the original decision retired, and Gov. Pete Wilson named two new justices to the court. On May 22, the newly constituted court agreed to re-hear the case and vacated the earlier ruling.

The re-hearing on the case was held on May 5, 1997, and on August 5, 1997, the court reversed itself, ruling 4-3 that the law was unconstitutional because it violated a minor's right to privacy under the state constitution. Four judges on the state supreme court -- not the democratically-elected legislature -- changed California law forever. And now, California's citizens are paying for 12-year-old girls to have secret abortions. Public schools shuttle little girls off to abortion clinics in the middle of the school day. Parents are being denied their right to be parents by the state of California.

What's a parent to do? The only way to change the law now is by amending the state constitution to provide that parents must be notified when their minor daughter seeks an abortion. A measure that would have done just that was narrowly defeated in last year's special election, but proponents have now begun circulating petitions in an effort to get the measure back on the ballot for the November 2006 general election. For more information, contact Protect Our Daughters (toll-free) at 866-828-8355, or email Janet@ParentsRight2Know.org, or visit the websites: www.ParentsRight2Know.org and www.YESon73.net.

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