A Parent's Worst Nightmare: A 13 year old California girl is groomed by a sexual predator, ultimately resulting in a sexual assault and unintended pregnancy. The pedophile takes the minor to an abortion provider. The provider does not notify the minor's parents of the assault, the pregnancy or the medical procedure for termination. The parents' insurance company conceals the nature of services performed, but is allowed to hold the policyholder financially liable.
Not kidding: that scenario is LEGAL as of 9/22/21. Governor Gavin Newsom, signed AB 1184. This bill, sponsored by Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, prohibits insurance companies from revealing to the policy owner the nature of “sensitive” services (including abortions, treatment for sexual assault, drug abuse, mental health counseling, cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-change operations). However, the policyholder is still financially responsible for those services. In California, minors as young as 12 have been able to consent to all of these sensitive treatments, and a minor of any age can receive an abortion without parental notification or consent.
How did this happen? What CA parents actually agreed to give strangers the right to perform a medical procedure on their child without their consent or notification? What parents decided to give someone with a financial incentive permission to put their child on hormone therapy? What parent wouldn't object to paying a bill from their insurance company with unidentified and legally concealed charges for services performed on their child?
Parents in CA never consented to this -- but they elected and then failed to recall a governor who has no problem stripping them of all their parental rights. It's a cautionary tale: Remember what happens in California inevitably spreads like black mold everywhere else.
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