Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Rebecca Cohen has filed a lawsuit to overturn Colorado’s parental notification law, claiming that it is unconstitutional.
- In defending the suit, Cohen claimed that the doctor-patient relationship is “sacred,” insinuating that parents should not interfere with that relationship.
- Parental notification laws protect minors from abuse and coerced abortion.
The Details:
Dr. Rebecca Cohen filed her complaint on July 8 in a Denver district court. In it, she claims the state’s law requiring abortion-minded minors to notify their parents at least 48 hours prior to an abortion “impedes and prevents young people from obtaining an abortion” and “delays their abortion care.” She is using the passage of Colorado’s Equal Rights Amendment, which enshrined abortion as a constitutional “right,” to argue that the parental notification law is unconstitutional.
In a statement explaining her lawsuit, she called the doctor-patient relationship “sacred” — insinuating that it is somehow more sacred than the right of a parent to protect their child from a life-altering (and life-ending) decision like abortion.
“Colorado’s Parental Notice Requirement intrudes on young people’s privacy, and in some cases risks their health and safety,” said Cohen in a news release. “The law undermines the sacred doctor-patient relationship and can push young people further away from safe, timely medical care. I am proud to support young people in this legal challenge” (emphasis added).
READ: Singer Lily Allen and podcast cohost can’t recall how many abortions they’ve had
It is unclear if Cohen would deem Department of Education laws surrounding parental consent for the administration of Tylenol and other over-the-counter medications unconstitutional as well.
Commentary:
Notably, Colorado law doesn’t require parental consent for abortion — just parental notification. In reality, this could occur with minimal to no parental contact, as the abortion facility is permitted to mail a certified letter to a parent, and then perform the abortion 48 hours later.
As one abortion business notes, “The notification process does not mean that your parent approves or agrees with your decision, and they will not be able to access your confidential medical records.”
But that isn’t good enough for abortion advocates like Cohen, who want children to have easy, fast access to abortion with no strings attached.
And though Cohen refers to the doctor-patient relationship as “sacred,” the majority of abortions are committed via abortion pill, in which the patient has little to no interaction with a physician, and the drugs can be shipped through the mail.
Additionally, countless women who have had surgical abortions have shared how they didn’t even meet their abortionists until they were in the procedure room — and what little interactions they had in that room were cold and minimal.
Mayra Rodriguez, a former Planned Parenthood director turned whistleblower, testified last week that an abortionist at her former facility sometimes committed as many as 45 abortions in one day, and “had no time to speak with the mothers.”
This is more akin to an assembly line than to a coveted relationship.
The Bottom Line:
Parental notification laws exist to ensure that minors are being guided through one of the most dangerous, life-altering procedures they may ever undertake. The laws exist to ensure that girls aren’t being coerced into abortion and that they aren’t being abused (abortion facilities have repeatedly shown a willingness to aid sex traffickers or sex abusers in getting abortions for their victims).
It is critical that parents are notified about their daughters’ intent to abort, so that they might have the chance to at least intervene to protect their children (and grandchildren) and hold the abortion industry accountable.
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