Girls on the Stand: How Courts Fail Pregnant Minors By Helena Silverstein
Girls on the Stand is a well-crafted, serious examination of parental consent/notification laws for abortion in theory and practice. Silverstein plays a bit of devil's advocate in appealing to those who support such laws out of concern for parental rights or even concern for teens who experience complications from abortion but hide it from their parents. Such concerns are valid, she argues, but do not justify the existence of such laws when their implementation is so far from the ideal. Her research details a range of problems from apathy to outright judicial misconduct (refusing to hear bypass petitions, appointing an advocate for the fetus, requiring teens get anti-abortion, factually inaccurate counseling), which should be expected when the topic is abortion, America's favorite issue on which to get self-righteous. Unfortunately, Casey opened the door for piles of such laws, and convincing people that parental consent laws provide an undue burden will be necessary to prevent further damage, even if courts continue to believe everything's OK because they look only at the word of the law, not the serious problems with its implementation. 9780814740316 Necessary reading. Never have faith in the implementation of the law re children's rights. Or women's rights. Or really ever. 9780814740316 This is a great book that documents the gap between what the Constitution means and how local judges often implement it contrary to the Constiution but consistent with their own personal beliefs. The author called up courthouses across the nation to find out if, consistent with the law, a pregnant minor would be able to gain a hearing from a judge to bypass parental consent for an abortion. Shockingly, there was huge variation, with some folks saying things like honey, our judge doesn't do that here and the like. This is an important book about how the right to choose, though recognized in law, has steadily been narrowed through other nefarious means. 9780814740316 This proabortion author contends that its too hard for minor's to get abortions when they have to go get judicial bypasses, but her own statistics {on page162) refute her claim. unconvincing that it should be even easier to kill a baby than it is now. 9780814740316
Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that states may require parental involvement in the abortion decisions of pregnant minors as long as minors have the opportunity to petition for a bypass of parental involvement. To date, virtually all of the 34 states that mandate parental involvement have put judges in charge of the bypass process. Individual judges are thereby responsible for deciding whether or not the minor has a legitimate basis to seek an abortion absent parental participation. In this revealing and disturbing book, Helena Silverstein presents a detailed picture of how the bypass process actually functions.
Silverstein led a team of researchers who surveyed more than 200 courts designated to handle bypass cases in three states. Her research shows indisputably that laws are being routinely ignored and, when enforced, interpreted by judges in widely divergent ways. In fact, she finds audacious acts of judicial discretion, in which judges structure bypass proceedings in a shameless and calculated effort to communicate their religious and political views and to persuade minors to carry their pregnancies to term. Her investigations uncover judicial mandates that minors receive pro-life counseling from evangelical Christian ministries, as well as the practice of appointing attorneys to represent the interests of unborn children at bypass hearings.
Girls on the Stand convincingly demonstrates that safeguards promised by parental involvement laws do not exist in practice and that a legal process designed to help young women make informed decisions instead victimizes them. In making this case, the book casts doubt not only on the structure of parental involvement mandates but also on the na�ve faith in law that sustains them. It consciously contributes to a growing body of books aimed at debunking the popular myth that, in the land of the free, there is equal justice for all. Girls on the Stand: How Courts Fail Pregnant Minors
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