50 Years, Same Script: How the Abortion Lobby’s Talking Points Haven’t Changed – and Still Endanger Our Children

Just under 50 years ago, in the wake of Roe v. Wade, The New York Times ran a story titled “Teen-Age Abortions Without Family Consent Hang in the Balance.” The piece covered a bill sitting on the governor’s desk that would require parental consent before a minor could obtain an abortion. It framed the question exactly the way abortion activists wanted: as a matter of “protecting” teens from the alleged dangers of involving their parents in such “personal” decisions.

Fast-forward to 2025, and nothing has changed – except the date. The language, the framing, and the emotional appeals are identical. And today, as in 1976, the abortion industry is working overtime to strip parents of their right to know – and their ability to protect – when it comes to their daughters’ abortions.

1976: The Birth of the “Parental Involvement Is Dangerous” Narrative

The 1976 New York Times article reported on the heated debate over a proposed parental-consent bill for minors’ abortions. Abortion advocates argued that:

• Parents might be unsupportive.
• Involving them could put the teen at risk.
• Delays caused by consent laws could jeopardize a young woman’s health.
• Abortion is supposedly safer than childbirth for teenagers.

An abortionist quoted in the article went so far as to call the idea that parents should have to consent to a minor’s abortion “poppycock.” That kind of contempt for the family’s role in protecting children has echoed through abortion-industry rhetoric for half a century.

The “abortion is safer” talking point is especially telling. It was a central claim in 1976, and it remains one of the abortion industry’s most repeated – and most misleading – lines today. It ignores the reality that abortion carries unique physical and psychological risks, and that minors are particularly vulnerable to both – not to mention causing the death of the preborn child. Even in 1976, voices like Jeanne Head, a nurse and pro-life advocate, warned: “Without a parent’s guidance . . . a pregnant teen‐ager may be subjected to ‘tremendous pressures’ to choose abortion and ‘led to believe that the procedure is so safe and so simple.’”

2025: A Colorado Lawsuit Recycles the Script Word-for-Word

On July 9, 2025, Colorado abortionist Rebecca Cohen filed a lawsuit challenging her state’s parental-notification law – a law that doesn’t even require consent, only that a parent be notified 48 hours before a minor’s abortion.

Yet the lawsuit claims the statute:

• Intrudes on young people’s privacy
• Risks their health and safety
• Undermines the doctor-patient relationship
• Delays care in time-sensitive situations

Also, the lawsuit falsely argues that abortion is safer than childbirth for young women

If all these claims sound familiar, they should. These are the same arguments the abortion lobby used in 1976. The only difference is the year and the forum. The substance is identical – because the abortion industry has no new defense.

Real-World Consequences

The dangers of this narrative aren’t theoretical. It has occurred in recent history, and it is  happening right now.

A recent shocking investigative report exposed allegations that officials at Centreville High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, arranged and paid for abortions for minors without informing their parents – in direct violation of Virginia’s parental-notification law.

According to the report:

• One 17-year-old says a school social worker scheduled her abortion, paid for it with school funds, and swore her to secrecy.
• Another student, five months pregnant and wanting to keep her baby, says the same social worker told her she “had no choice” but to abort. She fled the clinic in fear.
• Both incidents were allegedly approved by the principal and funded with taxpayer money.
• No parental consent or judicial bypasses were obtained, as the law requires.

This is the logical endpoint of the abortion lobby’s decades-long messaging war: parents painted as adversaries, the state stepping in as surrogate decision-maker, and minors left vulnerable to coercion, secrecy, and abuse in the name of their “safety.”

The ACLJ’s Position

The ACLJ has long defended the constitutional rights of parents to guide their children’s upbringing – rights the Supreme Court has recognized as “perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests” (Troxel v. Granville). Colorado’s law is already a compromise: notification – not consent – and judicial bypass. Striking it down would leave minors without the protection and guidance of their parents at the very moment they need it most.

As the Fairfax County scandal shows, eliminating parental involvement doesn’t protect minors – it exposes them to exploitation and irreversible harm.

From 1976 to 2025, the abortion lobby has been running the same play:

• Villainize parents as the problem.
• Brand abortion as the only “safe” solution – even claiming it’s safer than childbirth for teens.

It wasn’t true in 1976. It isn’t true now. And the tragic consequences for vulnerable girls in Virginia prove it.

The ACLJ will continue to fight in court, in legislatures, and in the public square to expose these recycled talking points, defend parental rights, and protect the most vulnerable from an industry that has put its bottom line above the safety of children for half a century.

Stay informed. Stand with us. The same script has run for 50 years – it’s time to rewrite the ending.

UPDATE 08.22.2025: Today, the ACLJ took direct action by sending letters to both Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares regarding the shocking reports that Fairfax County school officials arranged—and may have even paid for—abortions for underage students without parental consent. We are encouraged that Governor Youngkin has already directed the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to open a criminal investigation, and we strongly support this step.

But as we made clear in our letters, further action is urgently needed. These allegations raise systemic concerns about whether schools across Virginia are undermining parental rights, and they demand accountability not only from school officials but also from the abortion facility involved.

Once again, we see how the abortion lobby thrives on secrecy, deception, and cutting parents out. The ACLJ is committed to ensuring these violations are fully exposed and stopped, and we will continue fighting to defend parents and protect children across Virginia.