Florida Proposed Amendment No. 1

OK, last of the proposed constitutional amendments. After this I have top start learning about people… Anyway…

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
ARTICLE X, SECTION 22

ARTICLE X
MISCELLANEOUS

Section 22. Parental notification of termination of a minor’s pregnancy. The legislature shall not limit or deny the privacy right guaranteed to a minor under the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. Notwithstanding a minor’s right of privacy provided in Section 23 of Article I, the Legislature is authorized to require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian of a minor before the termination of the minor’s pregnancy. The Legislature shall provide exceptions to such requirement for notification and shall create a process for judicial waiver of the notification.

In this case the full text is exactly the same as the ballot summary. So, first, on the issue… I don’t have super strong opinions here. But in general I am for giving more independance and autonomy to minors, as I generally feel what they are capable of doing and understanding on their own is underestimated. The specifics of the abortion issue notwithstanding, I think that if a minor is capable of seeing out and obtaining medical care independant of their parents, they should be allowed to make the decisions associated with that care independantly. So I’d probably vote against a notification rule on the merits, although I can see the other side as well and understand the arguments.

Of course though, once again, this is a policy issue, and policy issue specifics should not be addressed in a constitution. Even though, I know, it is done this way in many states because that is what the initiative process allows… but I still think it is wrong. There is a legislature for this kind of thing. So, on the last of these…

My vote: NO