Part of a life-long series.

Today’s topic is abortion.  Specifically, parental notification laws.

Pro-lifers are in favor of such laws, which require that teenage girls seeking abortion must obtain parental permission (or a court order) before said abortion can be performed.  The pro-life lobby believes that parental notification laws will reduce the number of abortions, on the presumption that parents will encourage their daughters to carry the fetuses to term.

Not necessarily so, I learned today:

But some workers and doctors at abortion clinics said that the laws had little connection with the real lives of most teenagers, and that they more often saw parents pressing their daughters to have abortions than trying to stop them. And many teenagers say they never considered hiding their pregnancies or abortion plans from their mothers.

Still, even assuming these laws actually cut down on teen abortions, these laws should be opposed. And Matt Yglesius explained why:

The main effect of the laws is to intimidate such women out of getting abortions for fear of what their parents (most likely fathers) will do to them if they’re told. Now if you believe abortion is murder, this is a great deal. From within the relevant class of people, a certain number are successfully intimidated out of having abortions. A sub-set of these women probably wind up being subjected to physical abuse by their parents, but a few beatings is a small price to pay for cutting down on the number of baby killers. …Still, this stuff sucks.  The country does not need more teen mothers, does not need more child abuse, and doesn’t need bus drivers getting thrown in jail for letting pregnant women get on board. To be perfectly frank about it, women under 18 are the last group of people we should be subjecting to intense pressure to carry their pregnancies to term. Arguments that the aggregate impact of these laws will be less teen sex rather than more teen mothers are purely fatuous.

Hat tip: The Carpetbagger Report