Parental Notification

Several Protestant clergy gathered in Annapolis yesterday to voice their opposition to Maryland's proposed abortion law, saying they have urged parishioners to vote against the measure in the Nov. 3 referendum."

After two draft versions and ample opportunity for public comment, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. produced a ballot description of the abortion law Marylanders will vote on in November that is as fair and accurate as a 100-word summary could be. It begins, logically enough, by addressing the main thrust of the legislation. In this case, that means informing voters that the law in question largely continues the status quo on abortion by restricting state interference in the decision.

,TC An article in The Sun yesterday incorrectly characterized a provision in the abortion law that Maryland voters will consider in November's referendum. The law contains a provision that doctors notify a teen-ager's parents before her abortion, but it also includes exceptions to that requirement.The Sun regrets the error.While politicians were talking about laws requiring parents to be notified before a teen-ager's abortion, most of the 334 pregnant girls studied in Baltimore were talking to their parents, a Johns Hopkins researcher reports.

A graphic in The Sun yesterday omitted a phrase from the text proposed by the Maryland attorney general for the abortion question on the November ballot. Here is the correct language, with the omitted phrase bold-faced:"Revises Maryland's abortion law to prohibit State interference with woman's abortion decision before fetus is viable, or, under certain conditions, at any time and to provide certain exceptions to the requirement that a physician notify an unmarried minor's parent or guardian prior to minor's abortion; repeals pre-abortion information requirements about abortion alternatives; repeals some, and clarifies other, provisions related to abortion referral; requires that abortions be performed by licensed physicians; provides good-faith immunity under certain conditions to physicians performing abortions; authorizes State to adopt abortion regulations; repeals certain penalty and disciplinary provisions related to the performance of abortions."

LOS ANGELES -- Gov. Bill Clinton, continuing his strategy of addressing voters directly through popular television shows, invaded the airwaves territory of the hip young adult yesterday by taking questions from under-30 viewers at the studios of Music Television (MTV).Although most of the questions were not much different from those repeatedly asked by their elders this year, the rap-and-roll set did smoke Mr. Clinton out on two matters of relative importance. He said that if he had the chance, he would appoint Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York to the Supreme Court and, yes, that he would have inhaled that infamous marijuana joint had he known how.Mr.

Here is how members of Maryland's delegation on Capitol Hill were recorded on important roll-call votes last week. The House had no contested votes:Y: YES N: NO X: NOT VOTINGSENATE: TO REJECT CUTBy a vote of 28 for and 69 against, the Senate rebuffed an attempt to transfer $3.15 billion from the Pentagon budget to domestic programs such as cancer and mental illness research, Head Start, child immunization and breast cancer screening.The vote occurred as the Senate passed the $204 billion fiscal 1992 appropriations bill (HR 2707)

She was barely 18, a college student, and she was -- by he own description -- "careless, stupid and ignorant."She also was pregnant and her first thought was, "I have to get rid of it." Her second thought: "My parents cannot know about this."Call her Laura, said this woman, whose name is not Laura and whose parents still don't know that she had an abortion, even though 12 years have passed.And tell her story, she added, because it is relevant to the abortion-rights bill passed by the Maryland legislature this week.

From the start, we have had deep concerns about the parental notification provision in the abortion-rights bill the Senate passed Tuesday. Although we most assuredly encourage the concept of teen-agers seeking advice from parents on an issue as serious as whether to carry a pregnancy to term, we maintain that a female who is old enough to decide to engage in behavior which results in pregnancy should have the right to decide to terminate that pregnancy as...

ANNAPOLIS -- A Senate committee approved a bill yesterday that would keep most abortions legal in Maryland but also would require -- over the objections of many abortion-rights groups -- that a parent be notified before a minor has an abortion.The 7-4 vote, in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, sets up a Senate debate on abortion likely to begin tomorrow.L Neither side is predicting a swift end to the deliberations.Activists say the bill will be attacked on two fronts. Opponents of abortion said they will try to add restrictions to the bill on the Senate floor.

Five hours of hearings on the abortion issue yesterday changed no minds. The subject is well known to all 188 members of the General Assembly. Every delegate and senator has taken a position. In 1991, unlike 1990, legislative leaders have made it clear the matter will be voted upon in both the House and the Senate.Pro-abortion advocates have the upper hand. A majority of lawmakers seems committed to giving women the same right to an abortion in the initial stages of pregnancy that the Supreme Court stipulated in its Roe vs. Wade decision.