Abortion notice law delayed for good reason

No it was NOT for good reason. Illinois needs to catch up with the rest of the states around it and let the law be implemented. The ACLU needs to stop its attacks on life and let the unborn be protected. Parents have a right to know when their minor child is getting a major medical procedure. Sometimes the baby's life can even be saved if the parents know.

Girls also need a place to go when they can't go home so that murdering the child isn't the answer.

So, are these lawmakers saying that they'd allow the same underage child to make a decision about driving a car? What about getting married? How about drinking? Can they be prostitutes? How about entering the military? What about being president?

But they will allow them to murder a child? Is it any wonder this country can't spell it' way out of a paper bag?

We try our best to protect our children and idiots like the ACLU work against societies best interest.
If they want to work to emancipate these teens to avoid their parents, that would bypass the law. These children are their parents responsibility and legal obligation NOT the ACLU's!

Some girls just cannot go to their parents. Thanks to abortion I sucessfully finish high school, college, and gainfully employed looking to go to grad school. My other option was to have my parents disown me, get on welfare and leech off society, and most likely ruin an unborn child's life by being emotionally abusive since i never wanted it in the first place. I think that anyone who disagrees should pay for food, shelter, proper education...etc. this list goes on... for all these unborn children, why should the tax payers have to pay for this. They are also responsible for all the dead babies found in basements and girls who kill themselves by trying to miscarried.

Liberals are in denial about the number of childless couples who are ready and willing to adopt and the Crisis Pregnancy Centers who help pregnant girls. Suzy if life was that bad maybe you should have used a some birth control.

Whatever happened to adoption as an option? I am an adopted child. Thank goodness my mother loved me enough to have me and then give me up so I could be in a household with parents who were ready for a child but couldn't have one. It frightens me to think I might never have been born at all.

It always seems to me that abortion, though an option, is such a tremendously selfish act. It's saying I love myself more than I love this new little life that has yet to do anything wrong. It's saying someone else's 80-90 years of life is not as important as one year in my own.

Being unable to have a difficult conversation with your parents says much about maturity. If the child can't have a difficult conversation how can they be deemed responsible enough to make what should be a difficult decision?

Another big problem is that so many parents are abusive, physically or emotionally, and going to them is not an option.
If a woman or girl is old enough to get pregnant, she is old enough to make the decision on whether or not to carry the pregnancy to term.

If a parent is so out of touch with their child to not even know they are pregnant, or for the child to not want to tell them, maybe it's for the best they NOT be notified.

Mike- it is so easy for you to say to a 16 year old girl to use birth control because you are a guy. Boys get off scott free of responsibility ALL THE TIME and another thing - Life was NOT bad - I just don't want to have a kid! Life wouldn't have been terrible for me if I had a kid. It is my body, my right and no one else has ANY right to govern what I can and can't do with it. I am also not about to go through 8 months of torture for anyone else. All those people who are dying to adopt babies... why not adopt a kid that is a little older because there are PLENTY of them dying to be loved but because they are older you don't want them. You probably also think it is the responsibility of a 16 year old too if she was drugged and raped right?

Yes, what about adoption?

Because there are currently 500,000 children currently waiting on such.

It amazes me how many pro-life proponets say that abortion should be illegal. How many are willing to take in one of the thousands of children born into abusive homes? How many times have you heard the stories of children who are removed from one abusive environment only to be placed into another abusive environment? How many sit back and complain about the number of women "living" on welfare? (And trust me, you can't live on welfare, you survive. There is a HUGE difference.)

How many men walk away from their children and refuse to pay child support or have any relationship with their child(ren)? Mike, why is it that birth control is considered the responsibility of the woman? It takes both a man and a woman to create a baby. We blame the mother but we never talk about the father. "The woman should've used birth control if she didn't want to have a child or the woman should've made better choices when she laid down with her child's father?" Sound familiar?

Not all young people are in homes where open communication is allowed. There are circumstances were telling the parent/guardian may put the pregnant young woman & her baby at risk of physical and/or emotional abuse.

Abortion is an OPTION and for most, it is not an easy decision...at any age. Do we really want to go back to the days of back-alley abortions?

Illinois needs to NOT go a step backwards and other people need to learn to keep their religious beliefs to themselves.

This isn't the damned middle-east or Africa, every woman should have the right to decide what to do with her body.

No matter what any misogynistic man or religious nut-job thinks!

You think if you get rid of abortion that you'll stop it from happening? Ha! The rich conservatives will still have them done - they'll goto Canada or somewhere else!

And for the poor women who can't afford that, they'll try to find other ways! Just like they did before in the 50s, 60s, and 70s! They'll find unsafe, and horrible ways to terminate.

Don't forget the past just because it conflicts with your close-minded views!

If we saw the real face of anti-abortion I bet the majority would only be white men. STOP TRYING TO CONTROL WOMEN!

A school can't give my teenage child an aspirin without my permission. She cannot thank God get a tattoo w/o my permission. But she can abort my grandchild w/o my permission or knowledge. Abortion proponents seem to forget in their selfishness that a child is being punished for the actions of adults, over which it had no say. Even in rape. Do we execute one of the victims. You talk about the parental abuse but their is so little information of how many vs how many abortions we perform. Face it it is simpler and easier to kill babies than to face up to resonsibility. We need to look into our hearts, Teach and make men responsible. Do not stigmatize rape victims rather counsel and protect the woman and the innocent life created. It is so nice that the young lady above got to go to college. She got rid of an unwanted child. Perhaps there is a case for retroactive abortion. Why stop at late term? How about post-term? Why do we no longer have charity run homes for "unwed mothers"? Abortion is the ultimate selfish act. How can we not call this child abuse? We say it prevents child abuse.

Suzie brings up a good point, her body, her choice! Just like the new house passed Obamacare, except that I don’t get a choice of doctors, facilities, procedures or payment or basically anything else.

Oops maybe this was a bad example.

And when does the baby get "rights"? While I do believe tha Suzie was right about the baby's life in her care, she really shows how selfish the left is to scarifice 9 months to save a life.

Obama says even accidental births (a misnomer), can be aborted.

I love the hypocrisy of the left!

If Pro lifers want to stop abortions why don’t they get behind an initiative for Age appropriate Comprehensive Sex education instead Abstinence only? Teach kids and teens the what’s and whys of reproduction, and STD's (or STI's) Information that could stop unwanted teen pregnancies which in turn would lower the number of abortions. I believe the statistic is 4,000 a month are performed on teen girls. (Please correct me if I’m wrong) And then why not go one step further and mandate that Birth control be covered by all healthcare plans, just like Viagra. Pregnancy is a medical condition just like erectile dysfunction. BC is preventative medicine, Viagra is curative. One is deemed and elective prescription one is covered. On allow women to manage their life on their terms. One allows men to keep up with activities after naturally losing the ability (in most cases). How about we work on that? NO ONE WANTS MORE ABORTIONS! HOW ABOUT WE START AT THE BEGINNING RATHER THAN THE END!

This is what I do not understand.

If my daughter takes her car out and hits your car on the street you will hire a lawyer and sue me as being her legal parent.

But if my daughter wants to have unprotected sex, possibly getting a deadly disease, and have an abortion you think I have no rights at all.

So one benefits the lawyers and the other benefits those who don't have children and do not like children but nothing benefits me as a husband, father, taxpayer and citizen just trying to make my way in this world.

Sad that the far left has decided to destroy the family.

MM: That law doesn't necessary mean that it will save the life of an unborn. It could result in some infants being murdered by their mother once they are born.

If a girl is desperate to keep her pregnancy from her family, she may just end up taking matters in their own hands if they are mentally unstable in order to keep their secret especially if their parents are one of those types who will disown their daughter for getting pregnant.

The law makes sense. Many young women are getting abortions and then regretting it. you can not reverse abortions (murder). Now we need to make it a law that a married woman need her husbands, or babys father's consent before she gets an abortion. If she decides to give birth the man always is supposed to pay child support whether he wants children or not... If the father wants to raise his child why should the mother be allowed to murder it??????

Plain and simple: I am pro-choice with a whole lot of caution added into it because as a former reproductive justice activist, I had spoken to many women who have aborted pregnancies and I've heard every reason and excuse in the book.

I am a free thinker that believes that people can do whatever they want as long as they THINK about their actions and the potential consequences that follow. As a feminist and woman, I was insulted when I saw that some women (not all, but some) will take advantage of this procedure because they will not use birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy in the first place. Some women will use abortion as a means of birth control, and I am appalled by that because many women in this world would sacrifice a lot to bring a life into this world and cannot because of a medical condition that causes infertility. I applaud any woman that will sacrifice to bring a healthy baby in this world out of choice and love. To me that is power and where real feminism lies.

Parents have the right to know what their kids are doing. Teenage girls are resorting to abortion because they are not learning about contraceptives or their are taught that condoms are uncool by their peers. Prevention is key. Abortion is a last resort. We need to give kids the choice to seek the condoms and birth control if they chose to be sexually active. Parents need to know where and what their children are doing, even if it means compromising reproductive access to minor girls and women. If teens had adequate information/access about sex and contraceptives, premarital pregnancy would be a bare minimum.

I think it is ironic that most extreme pro choicers I run into are dudes. Either it's a control issue, or you think that women are just breeders and that we should give up all our goals because we are suppose to have children for you...While you pursue your career and spread your seeds and try to rule the world. Well it is not the Stone Age anymore! i don't believe in gender roles and a girl's role in life should not be rearing children if they don't want it to be.
I do believe there should be more responsibility, educational resources at school , and abortion should never be used as a form of regular birth control, but not everyone's situation is the same, not all young women have understanding parents and everyone isn't in the same happy situation as you! If there is not enough trust between you and your child for them to talk to you about abortion then they are scared of you and they are probably hiding all sorts of things from you. And Ed how would you know the statistics on women who regret having an abortion? Did you have one? I know many women who had them when I was in high school and none of them regret it. The US has the highest number of single parents and around 80% of them are female and it is strongly associated with an increased risk of a number of negative social, behavioral and emotional outcomes for children. It is too easy for men to get away without making any sacrifices and too easy for women to get stuck with all the responsibility and this law is only going to promote this bad cycle , plus...it is not going to stop people from trying to abort their fetus they will just end up doing them illegally!

I'd like to address a couple of these responses directly.

1) no, the governmental "idiots" who gave the 15yo girl & BOY a learner's driving permit is not the same governmental official to make the decision for a girl under 18 years of age as to whether or not she's mature enough & or endangered if required to get parental/guardian approval for an abortion. The government already gives out potential licenses to kill (nice pun, huh?). Do you want IL Driver's licenses to not be given to girls OR boys until they're 18?

2) The only ones "attacking life" are those individuals who keep referring to the well-being of a mass of duplicating cells [which may or may not ever have the potential of becoming a human] as more important than the life of the walking, talking, pregnant girl.

3) Someone mentioned that in rape we don't execute a victim. If we as a society allow someone to tell a female rape victim under 18 that she must keep something growing inside of her for 9 months because she'll be protecting a life, then how on earth are we all protecting HER life from a continuing 9-month crime that she will be unable to escape? Counseling? Really? That would make it acceptable to force girls under 18 into continuing a pregnancy created by a monster? [Monster is the term I think appropriate to use for anyone who commits an act of violence against another.]

4) Enforcing child support is a really good point.

5) Susie - very brave of you to speak up in this forum.

6) Adoption & foster parenting needs to be promoted and made a viable option regardless of applicant's sexual orientation and/or being single as long as there is a proven means of support & no history of committing violence.

7) Any parent who truly believes that they control the actions of their under 18 child is nonsense. Kids under 18 can go off to college. They should still ask mommy & daddy's permission for everything, right? Unless the child is spending 100% of their time with their parent (which sounds absolutely abhorrent to me), there are plenty of opportunities for drinking, driving, sex, stealing, lying, etc. Does your child walk or drive to/from school? Does your child spend time at a friend's house? Does your child babysit? Does your child participate in sports or clubs? Does your child always go to the movies with you? Does your child go to the mall? Does your child wear a #*@% lowjack so you know their whereabouts 24hrs a day? If not, you probably have no idea what's going on. Mind you my personal reference is from 20yrs ago & I cannot even imagine the potential threats/opportunities for mischief coming over the computer.

Everyone has (at least some) knowledge of current events. Has the rate of underage drinking gone down? Drug use? Fatalities for teen drivers? Sex - resulting in pregnancy or transmission of an STD?
Not in any report that I've seen.

Here's your best bet: Do what any good parent knows to do, which is talk to your child (both male & female) often, let them know your position & beliefs & why, & teach to them to be able to make the best decisions they possibly can in their lifetime. The decisions themselves are theirs alone. Feel free to implement that your underage child wear the male & female versions (as applicable) chastity belts if you can too.

For those of you who think you should make decisions with long-term consequences based upon your personal beliefs for individuals under 18 that you do not personally parent or legally guard, butt out. Unless every girl has the same options regardless of wealth and education, the opponents of this temporary stay on parental notification prior to enforcing this law only impacts the poor.

While I don't agree with abortion, I understand that it is an option and understand that a woman can do as she wishes with her body. That being said, there are options which can be exercised before pregnancy. Yes there is abstinence, but that doesn't work in todays world. Our children today are sexually active younger and younger all the time. It is a sad statement when 13 year old girls are having children.

When I had "the talk" with my father he ended it with two pieces of advice. The first was to not have sex until I was ready to be a father and the second was, since he knew that wouldn't happen, stop at the drug store, gas station, convenience store or wherever and buy condoms. This was when I was 11 or 12 years old (over 30 years ago) and I remembered it well. I have no "unwanted" children running around and have never had an STD.

The bottom line is that while a woman can do anything she wants with her body, she should still act responsibly. If she does not want a child and does not want to use birth control herself, she should make sure her partner uses a condom. Any child past the 6th grade has had sex-ed and knows how babies are made. In todays world why would anybody who does not want children not use some sort of protection not to mention preventing getting some sort of STD. A few minutes of unprotected pleasure can become a death sentence. Ever heard of AIDS? If nothing else that should be reason enough for condoms.

As parents, we need to teach our children responsibility. Parents need to be active in the education of our children. Parents need to be teaching our children how to protect themselves because we all know that children are going to have sex. I would much rather have my son or daughter know about reproduction and the various forms of birth control than to have them come home and tell me they are going to be a parent (at 14, 15, 16, etc) or that they have to go to the doctor to be tested for an STD because they found out thier partner has or had one.

In my opinion, it all starts at home. And yes I do believe the law is a good one and there are provisions for a child afraid of thier parents to circumvent that part of the law. My question is why is there such opposition to the law with the court intervention provision? If a pregnant teen uses the court provision, maybe they can get counseling to make sure this is the decision she wants to make and prevent another unwanted pregnancy. Just letting teens get an abortion does not stop the next unwanted pregnancy from occurring via irresponsible or uneducated actions.

By the way I don't believe that a 15 to 17 year old girl does not know how pregnancy occurs or any way to prevent it in today's society. As someone said this is not the stone age or even the 50's, 60's or 70's. Another thing is that there are two things that seperate humans from animals, one is the ability to make a conscious decision and our ability to control our bodies. Animals have sex out of instinct to reproduce and continue the species. Human have sex for the purpose of procreation or recreation, usually for recreation in today's world. I'm not innocent but I am a responsible male, and yes still use protection.

Girls shouldn't be given an option to fool around and then kill their baby and have to live with it. Every man for himself society leaves little room for money to be invested properly in our children or do we just need more Americans. Let's put our priorities in order and help these kids. Together we stand.

The one poster said abortion helped her finish college and all of that good stuff and at least she didn't burden society.

What she is forgetting that abortion risks the woman's life as well. It could prevent her from having children in the future if she decided to have them.

Millions of people out there will adopt as they are unable to have their own children. Adoption is always an option. Abortion is murder. An innocent child pays with its life cause some woman wanted to spread her legs.

I don't believe a teenager knows all of the consequences that come with this risky procedure.

Well, here's the solution: Either these girls should learn to keep their legs close, use birth control, or demand their parnters to use a condom (easy to get). Parents should talk to their young kids about sex and STDs. Here, abortion is not the only problem, we are talking STD including HIV. Many of theses girls might have STD's and don't even know it! I think Adoption is the better choice, giving your kid a chance to live and experience life with another family is the best choice. I'm planning to adopt or at least be a foster parent. Besides, its not the unborn child's fault that their mother can't keep their pants on or their father is too stupid to know how to use a condom. If the case was rape, then its a completely different story. So people, keep your pants on!

God bless the ACLU! The right to lifers are doing nothing but imposing their religious morals on everyone. It's nothing less than a religious issue to them. I say keep your religion to yourself and let me make my own decisions. I will NEVER see it your way. Thank you.

Dear Kate Grossman,
Good luck on your next job! Suggestion: There are probably many, many, stupid fundamentalist churches out there that need help with their weekly newsletters!

I’d like to address all the responses that think this would be a good thing,
I am a senior in high school and I believe that every girl should have their choice if they want to tell their parents if they need, want, or have had an abortion or not. I don’t think the state or anyone has a right to tell you that just because you are under 18 that you don’t know how to make your own decisions. What everyone doesn’t understand is that there are those kids that can’t go to their parents, or don’t have anyone to talk to. Not everyone has that luxury. Yeah there are those places that have counseling or a place for teens living in bad homes to go to and talk to someone, but not all teenagers are whiling to do that. Not everyone has that luxury, and for those kids that don’t than their parents don’t need to give them consent about needing to get an abortion. Why would they have to go to their parents so they can just get brought down and feel even worse about themselves? Or those teens that have parents that beat them when they do even the slightest things wrong. Think about the teens that have strict parents and would be disowned by their entire family if they were to come home and say mom, dad I need you to approve of me getting an abortion. I disapprove of the state’s decision to try and make this happen. Teenage girls need to make their own decisions. We’re growing up and have a mind of our own to make our decisions how we think it will affect us and what’s best.

in my opinion i feel that when your at the age of 14, you should be required to tell the child's parent that they're considering an abortion. one due to the fact that they're under aged and what if something were to go wrong then the doctors will be held responsible. when your 18 your old enough to make that type of decision on your own and your considered an adult at that age.

"Either it's a control issue, or you think that women are just breeders and that we should give up all our goals because we are suppose to have children for you..."

Number one, I am a woman. Women are not breeders by any means-- all I meant by my comment that as a former reproductive justice activist/volunteer for Planned Parenthood, I spoke to lots of women that had abortions and I heard stories from women that stemmed from extreme socio-economic situations/stressors and also stories from women that had medical abnormalies with their pregnancies. I also heard stories from women that used abortion/pregnancy as a tool to seek revenge on men they had dated, as a tool to manipulate, or as birth control method since the Pill or condoms were not used during sex activities.

I believe that women should have the right over their reproductive destiny. I just think that some women take advantage of abortion as a medical procedure and as an activist, I never fought for those women. I fought for women that were poor, in abusive households, in desperate situations that needed to seek an end to their pregnancy.

Being an abortion activist is an "all or none" choice. You either fight for all women regardless of the few sour grapes in the bunch or you chose to fight for none. I no longer participate in activism because I saw how some women want to bring healthy children into this world out of LOVE and CHOICE and FREEWILL. There are women in this world that cannot because of a physical or hormonal condition but will do anything it takes to bring a healthy baby out into the world. There are women that can and will make sacrifice to save a child's life. I think that sacrifice in this regard is the highest possible.

Many women do not think about their actions before engaging in sex activity. Many are not fully aware of the consequences until it is too late. That's why we need comprehensive sex education in our schools and communities-- so that youth have the ability to make sound, educated choices about their sexual and reproductive lives. Education will mean that more young girls can live as young girls and bring babies into this world out of choice and not out of necessity or shame or obligation to her family and community's laws and politics. There is nothing worse in this world than being an unwanted child or being an unwanted mother-- trust me, I've seen that first hand and it's very very sad.

This editorial makes an excellent point about the need to educate and prepare court staff, employees and judges before implementing a judicial bypass system that should assist young women in critical need of support.

The law is already in place, debating and rehashing it makes little sense at this point.

But, what we can make happen, now, is to make sure the judicial bypass system is a carefully crafted system able to properly evaluate and assist young women so that they get the counseling, advice, and direction they need. This means that the proper training of all players is a must. The proper evaluation of young women who seek the court's assistance is critically important, and should be done with the assistance of skilled professionals and staff with the proper training and credentialling.

The one poster said abortion helped her finish college and all of that good stuff and at least she didn't burden society.

What she is forgetting that
uggs outlet abortion risks the woman's life as well. It could prevent her from having children in the future if she decided to have them.

Millions of people out there will adopt as they are unable to have their own children. Adoption is always an option. Abortion is murder. An innocent child pays with its life cause some woman wanted to spread her legs.

I don't believe a teenager uggs outlet storeknows all of the consequences that come with this risky procedure.