(Melissa Clement of Nevada Right to Life) – AB 405 is in jeopardy again. The Senate Health and Human Services committee is planning to kill AB 405 by not taking a vote. The Senate GOP leadership has never wanted to vote on this. Members of the GOP caucus are protecting one another so that the voters never know who stands for and who stands against parents. Although over 300 citizens packed the hearing in support of AB 405 on Memorial Day, Senators would rather listen to the paid lobbyists of Planned Parenthood, ACLU and the rest of the big abortion industry.
Hiding the vote protects certain members by not allowing difficult votes. This is not a difficult vote. Polling shows as many as 80 percent of Americans support parental notification. The size of this number indicates that a majority of people who are pro-choice on abortion rights support this vital protection. This number totally discredits Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s claim that supporters are extremists. Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and other opponents are the extremists. This is indicated not only by polling, but by the mere dozen people at the massive hearing that opposed AB405.
Nevada Senate Republicans have a decision to make. They can side with the extreme minority represented by their paid lobbyists who made the case that parents can’t be trusted, or they can side with the public, including all the parents, clergy, medical personnel who testified and turned out for this important meeting. If Nevada Republicans cannot support and pass a bill that has 80 percent approval, then pro-life or other advocates cannot trust them.
In every election cycle they ask for our vote. Now we demand theirs. The concerned Nevadans who have flooded the Senate Post office, flooded email inboxes and worn out Senate offices with their calls, did not conduct a state wide effort just to have a hearing. They also did not show up at the Capitol on Memorial Day to have a hearing, but no vote. Additionally, none of them made phone calls, walked precincts, gave money or gave a vote to any legislator so they can hold a hearing but no vote on a slam-dunk no-brainer bill like this. Nevada parents are demanding a vote and to pass it immediately.
Assemblyman Ira Hansen and witnesses for the bill made the logical case that parents should KNOW. Hansen quashed the claim that abortion clinics telling girls is dangerous by noting that this legislation is law in 38 states and operating in some for as long as 25 years, yet no dire consequences have been recorded.
All parents, regardless of political stripe, recognize the necessity of parental involvement in all medical decisions, including the invasive surgical procedure of abortion. They recognize those who stand to gain financially are never uninvolved counselors.
Testimony of witnesses, Assemblyman Ira Hansen’s spirited and thorough presentation and the “clarifications” provided by Legal Counsel destroyed the abortion industry’s flimsy case. AB 405 is constitutional, good policy, the judicial bypass is workable. Teen records will be safe. Hansen noted that statutes like this are “functioning well in 38 states and have been doing so for 25 years.”
AB 405 is sound. It is constitutional. It is good policy. It deserves a vote now.
Melissa Clement is president of Nevada Right to Life, a non-profit, non-sectarian educational organization. It works to support right to life issues through all phases of the electoral process including educating and empowering voters about right to life by peaceful and legal means of education, legislation, and political action. Visit www.NevadaRightToLife.org for more information.