BY MIKE CETERA
Aurora Alderman Chris Beykirch has authored a resolution asking the state to get its act together on parental notification. Find a copy of the resolution here. Read today's story here.
The resolution -- a far more appropriate (and perhaps more legal) response than a proposed ordinance requiring doctors to give a warning of two days before performing a medical procedure on a minor -- basically admonishes the state for not taking the lead on the issue.
A parental notification law approved by lawmakers in 1995 has been tied up in the courts for more than a decade and has never been enforced.
Here's the gist of the resolution:
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Aurora, Illinois calls on all Elected Officials of the State of Illinois to act at once to provide the people of this State with an enforceable Parental Notification Law that provides no minor child shall receive any medical treatment without notification of a parent or legal guardian except in the case of emergency and allowing for judicial review only in special cases involving abuse, potential abuse or parent or guardian incapacity.
The resolution points out that the state's current parental notification law, which would regulate notification on abortion only, "is said to be unenforceable in a court of law..." Yet supporters want the state to adopt an even tougher law that would require notification for any medical procedure. This is certainly an understandable position to take (and one that many parents would approve of), but how is a broader law going to be any easier to enforce?
I am 16 and a junior in highschool and i can tell you honestly that this proposed law will not only harm teens but it will keep parents 'head in the sand' as one collumist wrote. I have very open and honest conversations with my mother but i promise you i am one of the few. all you parents may think you know what your teens are doing when their out, but you are wrong. it's no 'somebody elses' kid' and its not the sterotyped 'bad kids' it's the cheerleaders, its the football players, its the math nerds and yes, the youth group leaders. It's your kids, and like it or not, they have hormones, ranging ones that need an outlet. and whether they tell you or not, they will experiment with some type of sex because no one above 13 is going to hold hands and peck during the commericals. If this law is passed teens will no longer go to clinics because they don't want their parents to know. when you were 16 did your parents know everything you did with your boyfriend or girlfriend? i didn't think so. you should always encourage your kids to talk to you and as parents you need to practice being open minded, and that never means compromising your values, it means being understanding. if parents really wanted to protect their kids they would allow such a law to be shut down in it's tracks. stop pretending it's not happening. TEENAGERS ARE HAVING SEX. get over it and keep them safe.