PORTLAND, Oregon (LifeSiteNews) – Oregon’s leftist governor signed legislation recently that will allow some teenage girls to get abortions without parental consent.
An amended version of House Bill 2002 on “Reproductive Health Rights,” which came after Republicans staged a walkout to delay the passage of the bill, includes language to allow girls 15 years and older to get abortions without parental consent.
However, there are broad exceptions in the law that could allow girls of any age to get abortions without their parents’ consent if they believe procuring an abortion would result in “emotional abuse.”
H.B. 2002 creates a “fundamental right” to “terminate the individual’s pregnancy.” Governor Tina Kotek, a lesbian Democrat, signed the legislation on July 13 with minimal fanfare, according to KOIN 6.
A 10-year-old girl could consent to the abortion if the “health care provider” believes parental involvement “may result in the physical or emotional abuse of the minor or the neglect of the minor” or “would not be in the best interest of the minor.”
The legislation also requires insurance companies to cover the surgical and chemical mutilation of gender-confused individuals.
The bill drew support from the Oregon Food Bank, whose goal, ostensibly, is to ensure people don’t go hungry.
“At Oregon Food Bank, our day-to-day decisions center the experiences, leadership, and needs of communities that face disproportionate hunger and poverty – and we know that hunger and poverty are outcomes of a lack of access to reproductive healthcare,” the group claimed.
It claimed further in its testimony letter:
Similarly, lack of access to gender affirming healthcare poses great personal and financial risks to community members seeking care – and forces people to make impossible choices between accessing vital healthcare and putting food on the table. Single moms and transgender people experience some of the highest rates of food insecurity in Oregon – especially if those of us who are Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color. People who experience discrimination and bias in healthcare avoid seeking care when they need it, leading to long term costly consequences for well-being, financial stability and food security. Expanding access to bias-free and competent healthcare is a critical intervention against hunger and poverty.
Catholic leaders in the state opposed the legislation.
Diocese of Baker Bishop Liam Cary wrote that the new law, in addition to promoting immorality through abortion and transgenderism, shows a “profound disrespect for the authority God gives parents over their children.
He criticized the bill for placing the state over the parents and keeping them in the “dark” when it comes to abortion and so-called “gender-affirming care.”
Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample criticized the legislation for “sever[ing] the relationship of trust and transparency that should exist between parents and their children.”
The bill also “targets minor children while their bodies and minds are still developing and encourages them to seek treatments and procedures that have irrevocable results for which they may be completely unprepared.”
The legislation also prohibits Oregon government employees from helping other states prosecute rogue abortionists who travel to other states and illegally commit abortions, unless those abortions would also be illegal under Oregon law. The bill “protects healthcare providers from out-of-state investigations and legal action,” KOIN 6 reported.
Oregon joins other liberal states in embracing the Democratic Party platform on abortion, which is to allow for the killing of innocent pre-born babies through all nine months of pregnancy. Leading Democrats also oppose efforts by other states to prosecute rogue abortionists.
Maine’s governor, for example, recently joined legislation that practically does away with any limits on abortion. The legislation also removes criminal penalties for committing an elective late-term abortion without the necessary license, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
Legislation signed in New Mexico by the state’s Democratic governor would prohibit government employees from assisting in investigations into abortionists who travel to other states to commit abortions. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also set aside $10 million to build a new abortion facility near the state’s border with Texas.
Governors of other large Democratic states including Illinois, California, New York, and New Jersey have all put abortions without limits into law.
The support for unlimited abortion comes at a time when a majority of Americans reject the Democratic Party’s position, with only 34 percent of respondents to an October 2022 poll saying they opposed any limits on abortion.