A Mother's Right to Know

Just over two years ago, Diana Lopez received a phone call that no parent wants to get. Her thirteen year old daughter’s school called to inform her that her child had been taken to the hospital because she was bleeding. The staff member told Ms. Lopez that she didn’t know what had happened but that her daughter’s boyfriend’s mother had picked up the girl to drive her to the hospital.

Bells and whistles should be going off in the minds’ of parents about now. The school has no idea what happened to Lopez’s daughter, just that she was bleeding. Lopez was not called right away. Her daughter was released to another woman who was not even on the emergency call list. No ambulance had been called although the girl was bleeding badly enough to need to go to the hospital. Hmmm.

As it turns out, the girl was four months pregnant and the boyfriend’s mother had taken it upon herself to schedule the girl for an abortion. She had already been escorted to a Planned Parenthood and had laminaria, a cervix dilator, inserted, and she began bleeding heavily as she was walking to school with her sister that morning from whence she was to be picked up and driven to the Planned Parenthood by the boyfriend’s mother to finish the abortion.

How badly was she bleeding? Obstetricians routinely tell their patients to call in right away if they experience bleeding “heavier than a normal period”. Women accustomed to heavier flows will say, “Yes, but I can bleed heavily. How will I know?” The frustrating response is, “You’ll know.”

And the truth of the matter is, YOU’LL KNOW! The girls were frightened for a reason. But as it turns out, she was not taken to a hospital but to the local Planned Parenthood. Also, the school staff knew before they called Lopez that the girl was scheduled to have an abortion. Nevertheless, before contacting the mother, they released the girl to another woman who had lied about where she was taking the minor.

By the time Lopez found out where her daughter had been taken and arrived at the Planned Parenthood, her child was in surgery. The clinic receptionist told Lopez that she could not release any information to her because it was a “confidential matter”. Afterwards, the Planned Parenthood staff sent the child home with painkillers, antibiotics, and birth control pills. They gave Lopez no instructions on how to care for her daughter after the surgery.

Is there any other surgical procedure performed on a minor in this nation that is too private to speak to a parent or legal guardian about? How can a thirteen year old girl have a drug medically inserted within her body without her parent’s consent or knowledge? A minor cannot even get a tattoo or a piercing without parental consent. Even a grandparent cannot take a granddaughter to have her ears pierced without her mother being there. So how does a Planned Parenthood insert laminaria into the cervix of a minor without her mother’s knowledge? How do they perform a surgery on a child—a much more invasive procedure,--- refuse to release any information to the mother, and get away with it?

Because it’s an abortion. And it’s a “woman’s right” to abort her child-- even if she’s eleven or twelve or thirteen-- without her parent’s knowledge or consent. Abortions are performed even if an older man who has committed statutory rape brings the girl in to cover his crimes.

There are a million things that can go wrong with such a surgery. A woman really can bleed to death from a miscarriage or a botched abortion. She really can die from infection. Shouldn’t a parent be made aware and be involved in the medical decisions? A doctor would consult with a parent before removing a mole from a minor! Is a girl afraid to tell her mother that she’s pregnant? Heck, yeah! Most kids are afraid to tell their parents they’re failing social studies, but that doesn’t mean the parents shouldn’t know.

Parents aren’t perfect. They aren’t always going to respond calmly to the bad news their children tell them. But most parents in this nation do love their children and are best qualified to walk through the traumas of life with their children. How awful for surgical procedures to be performed on children without their parents’ knowledge of consent! Something is definitely wrong.

Source: LifeNews: California Mom's Experience Highlights Need for Abortion Measure