Haven’t we seen this before?

For the third time in just four years, a measure that would limit the ability of teenage girls to obtain abortions is on the California ballot. Basically, Proposition 4 says that parents have a right to be notified, with a required waiting period of 48 hours before care could be administered, before their underage daughter has an abortion.

Let’s get this straight: Parental-involvement laws don’t stop teens from getting pregnant. They don’t result in fewer abortions. They don’t turn dysfunctional families into healthy ones.

How do we know all this? Because “parental notification” laws have been passed in more than 30 states. They’ve been studied. And the results clearly show that such laws do nothing to reduce teen-pregnancy rates.

Californians defeated Proposition 73 in 2005. We defeated it again with Proposition 85 in 2006. It’s time to do the job one more time with Proposition 4, and say no to parental notification.