Why I'm Voting No on 43

All my close friends know where I stand on abortion. Morally I'm against it. I don't feel that having irresponsible, unprotected sex makes abortion okay. There is no excuse for not taking precautions to keep from getting pregnant. I do believe life begins at conception. A life has been created and that is not to be taken lightly.

From a legal standpoint however, making abortion illegal has the horrific potential to force women into back ally abortions putting themselves at risk for infection, abuse & death. Taking two lives to pretend to save one makes no sense. And measure 43 passing would force teens who could not for whatever reasons tell their parents, to decide on alternative choices for abortion that may be unsafe.

The argument for passing 43 is that kids should not be alone when making the decision about staying pregnant or not and that by the parents being notified the daughters will get the help they need. And I agree that teens need resources/support when making such a huge decision. However the assumption here in this measure is that all teens have safe caring parents they can go to for something like this. Assumption/fantasy is not reality. There may quite easily be teen girls who are escaping the horrors of their home life, make poor decisions sexually and then find themselves pregnant. By being forced to tell unhealthy or possibly abusive parents their situations these girls could risk being further abused, kicked out of their homes or forced to have an abortion when they may have changed their minds at the last moment.

Conservatives seem to try & come up with laws that would make sense in "ideal" situations. But the truth is that with many kids their parents are the last people that should be notified in emergency situations. I would hate to see a young girl make decisions based on being between a rock and an ever harder place. I must concede that some teen women may rush into having abortions when they could have had loving parents help them. But one must also face the reality that passing a measure like this may drive a pregnant teen to runaway, have an unsafe abortion or worse, commit suicide. The pain of an aborting a baby I'm sure is for many lifelong and traumatic. I'd never do it & pray my loved ones don't. But for a young woman, the pain of possibly losing her life is just too much for us all.

Please view the facts and then decide!