State lawmakers revise abortion bill after criticism
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - After facing criticism that a bill purporting to mandate parental notification for minors seeking abortions would also place long-existing abortion rights in the state at risk, Republican lawmakers on Monday introduced revisions narrowing the bill's scope.
In its original form, Senate Bill 5156 would have repealed laws passed by voter initiative in 1991 codifying in state law that women have the right to seek abortions and that doctors have the right to perform them.
By extension, the bill would have made doctors performing abortions in the state guilty of a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, in the event that federal laws allowing abortion are reversed.
In the new version, those repeals of existing law are removed.
Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, a bill sponsor, said the original language was due to an oversight by the state's code reviser.
Advocates supporting the measure said it was not meant to curb abortion rights.
"It was not the intention of this bill to outlaw abortion," said Peggy O'Ban, spokeswoman for Human Life of Washington, an anti-abortion group.
Elaine Rose, CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, expressed skepticism that the language repealing existing law included in the original bill was the fault of the code reviser.
"That seems like a pretty big drafting error to me," Rose said.
In its original form, Senate Bill 5156 would have repealed laws passed by voter initiative in 1991 codifying in state law that women have the right to seek abortions and that doctors have the right to perform them.
By extension, the bill would have made doctors performing abortions in the state guilty of a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, in the event that federal laws allowing abortion are reversed.
In the new version, those repeals of existing law are removed.
Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, a bill sponsor, said the original language was due to an oversight by the state's code reviser.
Advocates supporting the measure said it was not meant to curb abortion rights.
"It was not the intention of this bill to outlaw abortion," said Peggy O'Ban, spokeswoman for Human Life of Washington, an anti-abortion group.
Elaine Rose, CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, expressed skepticism that the language repealing existing law included in the original bill was the fault of the code reviser.
"That seems like a pretty big drafting error to me," Rose said.
Why make a women have a baby she doesn't want, so when the baby is born, it will not be treated with the love babies need to grow properly? Should we make her keep it just for the child to be abused? Just as people think it is God's will for the baby to be created, is it not also God's will that a woman makes a decision to not have it?  This sounds like 1984.
God knows abortion is murder. The Bible makes it clear. Abortion is just a modern human sacrifice for the sake of convenience.
 In addition why whould a young girl be able to have an abortion w/o parental consent, when the school cannot even give an asprin or sunscreen?
And what about adoption?
Sunscreen is banned in schools but abortion without parental notification is OK? Which one of you Progressives is going to follow the lives of and pick up the pieces when a girl has complictaions from the abortion or simply falls apart emotionally? Answer? None of you. And the parents are left to try and figure out what's happening with their daughter.
What a mess you've made of this country.
I wonder what our world would be like if the people who spend so much time and money trying to outlaw abortion, were to concentrate those resources on preventing pregnancies? If you believe making abortions illegal will put a stop to them, you are so wrong. That will just send women back into the alleys again, for illegal abortions. Instead, if we started educating boys and girls in school and make birth control easily available to anyone who wants it, maybe we can actually turn the tide and decrease the need for abortion. Sex is a normal, natural activity and trying to control who has sex and who doesn't is obviously not working. Education of both boys and girls is the only thing that will decrease the abortion rate. As an example, look how education has decreased cigarette smoking and drunk driving. We can do the same with abortions.
@justmyopinion - Seriously? The schools teach sex education very early on and birth control is readily available at Planned Parenthood. Just exactly how much more education and birth control availablity is going to stem this tide? This is a moral issue and this society encourages our young people to participate in activities they simply aren't old enough to handle. TV and movies, and even music is morally bankrupt.
 @wheresthecommonsense Sex ed in schools covers just the basics and provides them with no birth control because of parents who would come unglued if they thought the school was providing birth control to their children. I think bc should be available in school and anywhere else kids congregate. We can continue to stick our heads in the sand, and pretend that kids are going to wait until they are married to have sex, but how's that working for us? How many abortions were performed last year?  If you really want to decrease the abortion rate, you have to teach birth control. It's only common sense, males and females are going to have sex no matter how much the conservatives would like to put a stop to it.
Well said. I think the issue is a combination of both the issues brought up by wheresthecommonsense and justmyopinion. Too many parents let entertainment teach our kids sexuality and there are too few adequete educations mechanisms in place to teach kids about their sexuality and how to care for themselves.Â
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If it is safe to assume by your name that you served in the USMC, then thank you very much for your service! I greatly appreciate it.
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@justmyopinion @wheresthecommonsense -- not only that, but many folks are trying to PREVENT proper sex education in classrooms and instead to teach 'abstience only' and such. And what's pathetic is that it's the same folks who want that who are demanding no abortions.... And I agree with wheresthecommonsense - if these folks would address the cause, they would be able to solve the problem. Abortion is a symptom of the problem - not the problem itself.
They just spent two days in Ocean Shores to figure out what went wrong with the last election and obviously haven't figured it out yet.Â
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Get a clue. Stop pushing your 'moral' agenda!
A parent isn't even allowed to open the insurance claim or dr. bill if the child is over the age of 14 - they are sent to the child in the child's name. You aren't even allowed to get medical treatment for your child unless they 'agree' to it. I'll tell you what, it's STUPID. If the parent is paying for everything and the child is not of age yet then it's absolutely stupid to think an 8th grader can or should manage their own healthcare. If my child got knocked up and wanted to have an abortion I hope she'd come to me irregardless of any law.
 @Half-Baked If only all children felt like they could come to their parents for support if they needed them. Unfortunately, there are 14 year olds who are pregnant as a result of incest that need support too and obviously cannot depend on their parents to care for them. There are also little girls out there whose parents would beat them within an inch of their lives, if they found out their daughters were pregnant. If only it were a perfect world, but it's not...
 @justmyopinion  @Half-Baked Progressive always try to use a broad brush . How many 14 year olds get pregnant from incest ? None. There are exceptions already in place for rape{unauthorized sex act} and incest. There are already laws protecting children from incest. Answer this question Progressives. if the age of consent is 16 ,why shouldn't a parent be concerned about there under age daughter getting an abortion ? if a parent has to give consent to have other surgery ,tattoos,peircings why isn't the same for abortions ? If your claim is some children can't go to there parents,most can ,why are you shutting them out ? progressive democrats are all for choice,as long as it is their choice ,not yours.Â
 @SeattleJoe No, unfortunately I cannot. The CDC lumps all abortions for females under the age of 19 together, that's why I stated the statistic is world wide. I was assuming we were concerned with all abortions in the world, not just the ones in the USA. But, if you google for the information you will find many, many news reports of young girls being impregnated by relatives. It's not nearly as rare as you might believe. Let me also state that my initial response was to Maynard who claims no girls under 15 get pregnant by relatives.
"90% of pregnancies in girls under 15, world wide",, great fact so what is the US stat. are we making laws for world wide recognition?
 @justmyopinion  @Maynard Can you cite a reputable source for that? It would be an interesting read. More importantly, is there a link for America, not the world. I suspect that when you take out what happens in the bush its likely the opposite.Â
@Maynard G Krebbs You obviously have no idea what you are writting about. 90% of pregnancies in girls under 15, world wide, are a result of rape by an adult family member. Just because a child has the ability to obtain an abortion without parental consent, doesn't mean they cannot go to their parent for help if they feel they are able to and I would expect the majority will, but why deny the ones who can't from necessary medical services? You do realize the doctors don't just line these girls up and perform the medical procedure? Any doc worth his/her salt is going to talk to the young girl and try to help her. Many will even encourage the girl to talk to their parents, or find them help in the case in incest or rape. Not all kids live in your warm, cozy little home where mom and dad love and support them no matter what. Someone has to take care of the ones that don't.
"Let's just see if we can sneak this through. If we get caught, we'll just blame the secretary who typed it."
So we require parental permission for a girl to be given something as ordinary as an aspirin or cough medicine, but allow girls to go for an abortion without the parents being notified??
 @Silvia You know, even though I support abortion rights for teens, I have to agree with that statement in general. It's crazy to me. As a parent, I can be held responsible for the actions of my child until they're 16 (age of consent). If my child loses a school book, they come after me. If my child breaks something, they can come after me.Â
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I don't understand how a child, under the age of consent, can agree to things that I can be held responsible for. I understand on one hand why this exception exists. On the other though, it's completely out of line with AOC laws.
@mhungry @Silvia -- this is trying to solve a problem that happens too often - a parent who forces the child to handle the pregancy the way the PARENT wants, without dealing with the child's wishes/state of mind/etc. - Incestious pregnancy (while I would hope that this is rare, I have a bad feeling that it's not as rare as we wish it to be). - parents who abandon/reject thier child for getting pregnant and so on.
 @FormerMarineSgt  @mhungry  @Silvia I agree it's a problem, and I completely understand that's why it's the way it is. I would at least like notification though to know what's going on with my kid. I should have a right to review their records, especially as I'm responsible for them and may need to know for multiple reasons. Not the least of which is emotional support after the fact if they get suicidal.
Huh, and all this time the GOP has been touting itself as the party that respects the will of the voters. I guess that only applies when the will of the voters falls in line with GOP party philosophy.
Approx 55 million abortions have been performed in this country since 1973. What a wonderful world it may have been if all those people would have been brought into this world. It is so shameful. The only difference between us and the aborted baby is someone "wanted us" Â The dems talk about protecting the children from guns but yet they support the right to choose? 55 million kids! That is an awful lot of deaths. I keep forgetting nobody "wanted" those kids. As our generation gets older we may not be wanted. Really late term abortion?Â
 @barkleydog Yes, because the overcrowded planet needs a few million more to tax our resources just a little bit more.
 @mhungry Using your logic why don't we just kill some more people so there will be more for you?
Just wait until the water wars begin. It's already an issue in the courts, and with the earth's population expected to peak out at almost double in the coming decades, it's only going to get worse.Â
 @barkleydog 55 million from a section of society that Republicans look down on and refuse to support once they are born.
 @therunner So you think that every baby that was aborted was going to be a  Democrat? That is really odd, why do they kill their own?
 @barkleydog Not to get in to the "ethics" involved, but I would be willing to bet those 55 million would have been a significant tax burden on the country and a high percentage would be criminals(also a huge tax burden). There are not enough people adopting kids to take all the current kids out of the foster system just add a few more on top of it and see where we get.
 @KeysontherightÂ
I would be willing to bet that most of them would have become an asset to this country. Why assume the worst?
 @Keysontheright  @barkleydog No worse than the illegal aliens that are here.Â
Good grief. Republicans really need to get off the abortion issue ASAP.Â
No one gets to impose their religious beliefs or values onto someone else.
No one gets to decide for any female whether she carries her pregnancy to term or not.
If the pregnancy is not yours it is none of your business.Â
 @domino "No one gets to impose their religious beliefs or values onto someone else."  Well the mother imposes her beliefs on the baby when she has it killed. If we are truly progressive and moving forward shouldn't the unborn babies have rights too?
 @SeattleJoe  @domino isn't the famale forcing her beleif on the father ? Stop turning random sex into something meaningless,and start using love to one another as well as respect. If the women carries the baby to term didn't she maybe also force the support of that child on an unknowing father. Why can the women make all the decisions and the man is stuck paying for them .it was mutual sex ,it should be a mutual decision.
@Maynard G Krebbs - An "unknowing father?" You mean the young man who had unprotected sex? Ha! Ha! Ha!
@Maynard G Krebbs The woman doesn't make all the decisions. The man has the choice to take responsibility and prevent a pregnancy by using birth control or not having sex in the first place. I used to tell my son when he was an adolesent, don't make a mistake that you are going to pay for, for the next 18 years. He's happily married now, and didn't have any children until he was in his 30's and those children were planned.
@domino   should the "sperm donor" have any rights? if the sex was consensual and no birth control was used by mutual agreement?Â
What troubles me is that liberals oppose the death penalty but are all gung ho on abortions. Did I niss something in the definition of murder?
 @Linc239 No, you missed something in the definition of a human being.
 @jowsuf  @Linc239 The definition of a human being is exactly the crux of the argument.
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Many people believe that the moment a child is conceived, a new human has been created, with all the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we all now enjoy. On the other hand, there are those who believe that it is only tissue, or a fetus until the moment of birth. Others would argue that life is defined by the ability to survive birth, so with modern technology, life must be assigned at some point before full term.
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These differences are irreconcilable. All religious beliefs and convictions aside, I believe it is morally responsible to error on the side of caution. With the exception of rape, incest and danger to the mother, perhaps a little leniency is called for. For those who believe this is infringing on choice, the choice to potentially create life was made when they engaged in sexual activity. Amazing how many people want choice without responsibility.
Right on the money. regardless of religion, if a woman is murdered with child the murderer is tried for the death of the mother and the unborn. so why is it ok to abort for things other than rape incest or life of the mother.
 Sex is natural but with life and giving life reguires responsiblity. I don't opject to abortions for the above reason , however where to we stop. don't like the gender ur having nix it. where will it lead to and where does it stop?Â
 @acepaul According to the recent news out of Colorado the Catholic church has changed their definition of a person because it now hits them in the pocket book. A man whose wife and twin sons died in a Catholic hospital's emergency room is suing the hospital for 3 wrongful deaths. The hospital's lawyers are fighting his lawsuit using the arguement that the twin sons were not born yet, therefore they are not "people". It's sad how fast ones principles can fall, when the all mighty dollar is involved.
you call it "human being" I call it "being human"Â This nothing to do with religious beliefs it has to do with reponsiblity and parenting. Aren't u lucky ur folks didn't take a trip to the clinic?..
 @jowsuf Yes, and that choice should start with keeping your genitals under control.
 @Linc239 Sometimes it's more responsible to choose to not be a parent.Â
Parent's of minors should always be notified. There are many young girls who get abortions simply because they are afraid to let their parents know they are pregnant. The sad part of that is that in many cases the parents would be supportive and help them. My own daughter got pregnant as a teenager. She lived at home for awhile after my grandaughter was born and spent a year out on her own before meeting her husband. Now she has two more and the "baby" is eleven. My daughter is so glad she did not have an abortion and is sure she would have regretted it. Requiring parent notification at least gives the girls a chance to find out if they are underestimating their parents. Haven't we all had times when we did not give our parents the opportunity to be there for us?
What if the parent to be notified is the one who got the child pregnant? Does the girl need permission from her rapist to terminate the pregnancy?
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It is painfully obvious that these Republicans simply haven't thought things through.
@Sutekh Then she should go to the police or a school councelor....anyone who will help her. But I guess you think it's OK to abort and continue to be abused.
Sneaky Republicans...you have to watch these guys, they are obsessed with controlling women's vaginas.
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 @Wayne  @lakeview If it has nothing to do with her, then what is the problem of removing it from her body and letting it go on it's merry way?
@Jolly @Wayne @lakeview  Pretty cold
 @Wayne  @lakeview "It has nothing to do a vagina and never has."
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Really? Abortion has "nothing to do" with a vagina?
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We're gonna need a basic human anatomy textbook on Aisle Three.
 @lakeview That's a ridiculous statement. It is not and never has been about controlling women's vaginas. The issue has always been whether or not it is alright to take the life of unborn children. Attempting to skirt the issue by making such absurd statements is never going to get the issue resolved.
 @Steve98028  @lakeview Actually Steve, Roe v. Wade was about due process rights and privacy rights, not really about the rights of fetuses that cannot survive outside the woman's body.Â
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As far as "resolving" the issue...it has been resolved for 40 years.
Not Women's Vaginas juvenille Vagina's.