Becky Bell was a successful high school junior in Indianapolis.
She had an excellent relationship with her parents, Karen and Bill.
But when she realized she was pregnant, the last thing she wanted
was to disappoint them.
The 17-year-old assumed full responsibility of her situation and
scheduled an abortion. But due to Indiana state law, she had to
obtain the consent of one parent. Becky could not stand letting her
parents know that she was sexually active. Becky had a back-alley
abortion and died one week later from complications.
When the coroner’s report revealed the cause of death as
septic abortion and pneumonia, Becky’s parents became furious
““ not at Becky, but at state law. In the documentary
“Abortion Denied”, Bill Bell says through tears that
the most tragic thing is that his daughter might be alive had she
lived in a different state.
Proposition 73 threatens to bring a similar law that killed
Becky Bell to California. The proposition will appear on the ballot
in California’s Nov. 8 special election. Proposition 73 would
amend the California constitution to prevent women under eighteen
from obtaining safe and legal abortions unless one parent or legal
guardian is notified by a physician or physician’s agent
either directly or by certified mail.
Though Proposition 73 does not require parental consent for
abortion, it might as well. Campus Coordinator of the Feminist
Majority Foundation Jessie Raeder states, “To the young
woman, consent and notification are the same thing. She has to tell
her parents that she is having sex”.
Like Becky Bell, many young women who fear disappointing their
parents might resort to unsafe back-alley abortions. Some women
live in homes where telling their parents that they are pregnant
could result in serious personal injury.
Proposition 73 pretends to take into account the reality of
teenage pregnancy through the judicial bypass. The judicial bypass
allows a young woman to appear before a judge in order to get an
abortion without notifying her parents.
In theory, this might work. However, theory is not reality.
Think of the following questions: where can a 17-year-old find the
money or time to go to court? Does she have safe transportation?
Does she know how to work the court system? Most importantly, does
she know the bypass exists?
To obtain the bypass, the young woman must prove it is either
dangerous to notify her parents or that she is mature enough to
make the decision. Stanford student Amparo Vazquez quips, “So
she is not mature enough to get an abortion, but mature enough to
be a mother?”
When tabling against Proposition 73 at UCLA in early July, FMF
intern Rashi Khanna reported, “One man showed me photos of
his young niece. He kept saying he would want her to tell him if
she were pregnant.” Rashi says that she explained to the
confused man that his niece would probably tell him but that
“you cannot legislate family communication.”
Proposition 73 tries to do just this. The National Abortion and
Reproductive Rights Action League reveals that “prop 73 is
bankrolled by some of the most conservative, right-wing donors in
California”. One of Proposition 73’s major supporters
is James Holman, publisher of the Los Angeles Mission, the San
Francisco Faith, the San Diego News Notes, and Concerned Citizens
for Life.
NARAL reports Holman has donated $1.3 million to Proposition 73
and spearheaded getting this dangerous initiative onto the special
election ballot. In 1990, Holman was sentenced to three years of
probation on two misdemeanor charges in protests at San Diego
abortion clinics.
Don Sebastiani also contributed over $150,000 to support
Proposition 73. During his six years as an assemblyman, he worked
relentlessly to limit women’s reproductive rights.
Tom Monaghan of Domino’s Pizza also donated $300,000 to
the Proposition 73 campaign. Monaghan is a regular contributor to
right-wing organizations and has given to anti-abortion Operation
Rescue, an elite Legatus catholic business group, and
ultraconservative Ave Maria Catholic College.
Clearly, Proposition 73 is not moderate. Rather, it is a tool of
the anti-abortion right wing.
Thirty-four states have parental involvement laws. Thirty-four
states contain bills that can kill women like Becky Bell.
Currently, young women in California may obtain safe and
sanitary abortions without risking physical, emotional, or sexual
injury. Under the current California Constitution, parental
notification laws are illegal as they contradict the state’s
comprehensive right to privacy laws.
Proposition 73 seeks to amend the state Constitution, chipping
away at the privacy rights of all Californians.
Stover is a third-year women’s studies and sociology
major as well as the editor in chief of FEM magazine.