Nita Lowey: “I think that parents should be involved in their children's lives and in their decisions. The Castle-Porter substitute…”

“I think that parents should be involved in their children's lives and in their decisions. The Castle-Porter substitute ensures that clinics encourage teens to discuss these decisions with their parents, and I support that language. I urge my colleagues to examine the Istook amendment, a misleading amendment. The gentleman from Oklahoma claims his amendment requires parental notification but not consent. He claims that under his amendment teens will have the same access to testing for sexually transmitted disease that they do now. But the facts show that he is wrong. Despite protestations, the Istook-Manzullo amendment is a parental consent amendment. The bill requires parental notification in writing 5 days before a teen can return to a clinic and receive birth control. This is, in effect if not in name, a parental consent amendment. If teens think their parents will be told, they will not come to the clinic in the first place. This amendment will scare teens away from getting the contraceptives that they need to avoid pregnancy. Medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, make no distinction between parental notification and consent. In fact, they oppose both.”