As most of you know, some California residents have made strides to stop legal abortions for minors. Prop. 85 was proposed recently, but California voters rejected it on Nov. 7, 2006. Even though it no longer poses a serious threat, it still raises the question: why in the world would anybody think of such an ineffective law in the first place? 

Some teenagers come from homes where they cannot talk to their parents about personal issues, or where there is violence, alcoholism or sexual abuse. Those are the teens that will be the most affected by this law if it had been passed because they cannot go to their parents for help. Many parents would disown their children, and the consequences that would follow would be unimaginable.

An alternative to an abortion for many girls would be to induce the act upon themselves by hitting their stomachs having someone do something obscene like putting a clothes hanger into their vaginal area to terminate the pregnancy. It is already hard enough for anybody to have an abortion because it is their offspring that they are killing – their child – all in order to live their lives like they had before. Whether 30-years-old or 17-years-old, a new baby would take up almost all of one’s social time and working life.  

The option of private abortion for sexually abused minors was also stated in Prop 85, but consider this; if you were a scared and pregnant teen, would you really go up to a judge who was a complete stranger with a hired lawyer and tell them your confidential and highly personal reason for wanting a private abortion? Even after lots of paperwork, waiting, conferences, and possible legal fees if you were granted the injunction, the abortion would have been eventually been performed by some uncompassionate doctor, and the time limit for a legal abortion within the first trimester could become past due.   

What has happened to our constitutional rights, our right to freedom, liberty, and equality? In the Roe vs. Wade case of 1973, Roe, a Texas resident, wanted to have an abortion but could not because of Texas law. In the end, the right to privacy in the 14th Amendment gave her and other women the right to an abortion. This resulted in changing the laws of the other 46 states. By proposing clauses such as Prop 85, all the time spent on this case would have been for nothing, and the rights that women around the nation have become accustomed to will be stripped away.

Similar to Prop 73, which lost by over 400,000 votes last year, Prop 85 which was simply reworded seemed like a waste of money to me. The people who are pushing for these restrictions for abortion seem to believe in the motto ‘try, try again’, but why bother trying again if the Supreme Court already ruled against it many times before?   

Abortions are now a part of everyday life – whether a result of sex or abuse – and no one and nothing should be allowed to strip females everywhere their right to have a private abortion. It’s their choice; just leave it alone.