With Parental Notice repeal, Illinois No. 1, Texas dead last in abortion rights

Two abortion laws, one in Texas, and one yesterday in Illinois, place Texas and Illinois at opposite ends of the struggle for abortion rights.

Illinois voted 32-22 in the Senate Tuesday, and 62-51 in the House yesterday to rid Illinois of parental notice of abortion by minor teens that had been in effect since 2013. It required abortion providers to notify parents if any teen under 18 sought the procedure.

Parental notice is fine for teens with a functional parental relationship. They do it voluntarily. For those without, it is a nightmare, such as teens suffering from sexual abuse, neglect or physical abuse from an adult family member.

Even the legal option of going to court to get an exception from a judge for the above reasons is a nightmare, having to relive such abuse in public, if it can conveniently be obtained at all.

No normal parent is harmed by the repeal. Those that oppose it for personal, moral reasons suffer imaginary harm. They don’t have to endure the real harm it imposes on innocent teens with a troubled home life trapped by the degradation the law imposes on them.

With Illinois vaulting to the top of all 50 states in abortion rights, Texas remains mired in last place with its 6 week threshold allowing opportunistic Texans to become bounty hunters, tracking down abortion providers simply giving women the health care every woman deserves.

Maybe Texas should slightly alter their state song to ‘Deep in Heartless Texas.’