NRL News
202.626.8824
dadandrusk@aol.com

Going after grandmother? Is there nothing NARAL won’t say?

Jun 22, 2012

By Dave Andrusko

Misinformation, misdirection, and misrepresentation—what would NARAL Pro-Choice America do without them? Let me close this week’s edition of National Right to Life News Today with a few words about what is—even by NARAL’s close-to-the-ground standards—outrageous.

According to a fundraising appeal extremist “anti-choice forces” (that would be you and me) are raising extremism to the next level: we are going after (I am not kidding) grandmothers!

I have to admit when I saw NARAL refer to the “Arrest Grandma Act,” I had to go back and re-read the previous paragraph. Hidden in the rhetoric underbrush is what NARAL is actually referring to without naming: the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA).

If you believe NARAL, CIANA is “a bill that would make it a felony for anyone other than a young woman’s parents to accompany her across state lines for abortion care.”  Ergo, since grandma isn’t a parent, it’s off to the hoosegow for her.

This grotesque misrepresentation of the law is enough to give dishonesty a bad name. Ask yourself, why would anyone be taking a minor girl across state lines.  In most cases, to avoid notifying a parent about the abortion.

CIANA is intended to keep parents IN the loop when their daughter is contemplating an abortion.

While more than half of the states require notification of or consent from at least one parent, or authorization from a court, prior to performance of an abortion on a minor, these laws are often avoided by minors who cross state lines, either on their own or with the collaboration of abortion providers and others.

Often those “others” are boyfriends and not infrequently much older boyfriends. CIANA would merely require any abortionist to notify a parent before performing an abortion on a minor who is a resident of another state, with certain exceptions.

NARAL asks the reader to help “us reach our critical goal of 2,000 new donors to fight back against anti-choice attacks” such as this one. (“All new donors will also receive a limited edition NARAL Pro-Choice America window decal.”) 

Maybe as part of its pitch for money NARAL might at least have the decency not to insult its supporters’ intelligence.

Editor’s note. There is still time to register for the National Right to Life convention June 28-30 and to reserve a hotel room at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in  Arlington, Virginia. Just go to www.nrlconvention.org.

Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha

Categories: NARAL