The Connecticut Quiz

Take a quick quiz with me.  What is most dangerous to a 15-year old girl?

1. A single aspirin
2. Thirty minutes in a tanning bed
3. An abortion

Let me give you a hint: It is not the abortion, at least not in the eyes of Connecticut lawmakers.

I read an article that other day that I found ironic, tainted, lopsided, and sad.  The article talked about how lawmakers in Connecticut have decided that protecting teen girls from tanning beds and aspirin is more important than protecting them from abortions.

Sen. Michael McLachlan, a Republican from Danbury, noticed a glaring irony in a bill requiring teen girls to receive permission from their parents to use tanning beds. He pointed to the fact that there is no state law requiring young teenagers to get permission from their parents for an abortion.  Chris Powell of the Journal Intelligencer newspaper reported on what happened next:  Democratic lawmakers discarded the entire tanning bed bill rather than allow McLachlan to add an amendment including abortions.  Irony at it's best.

But it gets better.  In August of 2007, the Connecticut Planned Parenthood abortion clinic came under fire.  The police department found that a 15 year-old girl had been kidnapped and then sexually abused.  Authorities say the unnamed girl ran away from home to live with 41 year-old Adam Gault, who plead guilty to all charges.  After getting her pregnant, Gault reportedly took the girl to a Planned Parenthood in West Hartford where she had an abortion.

Powell commented on the case as a reason for parental notification.  I agree 100%!

The greater irony of this story is that Connecticut lawmakers are allowing a teen pregnancy to be terminated through a barbaric procedure at a moment when the minor is at a terrible risk to their physical and mental health.  They are basically giving guardianship to the minor's surgeons, the people being paid to perform the abortion.  And no one knows that the pregnancy to be terminated may be the result of statutory rape or worse, even though the failure to notify parents, guardians, or law enforcement may conceal the most abusive felonies and facilitate still more abuse.  And abortion supporters will argue to the death that abortions are necessary to protect women.  Bull!

According to July 2008 figures from the Alan Guttmacher Institute (formed by Planned Parenthood) Connecticut abortions rose from 12,110 in 2005 to 14,112 in 2006. In 2007, the number rose again to 14,534, an increase of 422 more abortions.  Michael C. Culhane, executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference, has said a lack of parental consent is one reason why the figure is so high.  “There’s no parental notification requirement for abortion in Connecticut,” Culhane said. “If your daughter needs an aspirin in school, she has to have parental permission. But she can go out and have an abortion.

Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?”