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Show pie gigSg appirol Senate Bill 3 was passed by the state Senate. As amended, the bill will cutoff all state funds for contraception contracep-tion and abortion information, infor-mation, counseling and ' services for' unmarried minors without the written consent of their parents, and make Illegal any funding of agencies that approve of providing pro-viding such services. Sen. Karl Snow, sponsor of the bill, said availability of these services can only lead to promiscuity in society. so-ciety. We are talking about funding, not services. Should the state be in the business of providing contraceptives to minors without parents consent? The right to access is entirely another matter. As it now stands, private physicians who do not re ceive state funds will not be required to comply with the provisions of this bill. The state of Utah now receives re-ceives close to $800,000 annually an-nually from the federal government gov-ernment in Title 10 Family Health Planning funds. Sponsors Spon-sors admit that if passage of the bill is interpreted by the federal government as fairure to provide family planning services, $390,000 of these funds could be withheld. with-held. Should this occur, they would indeed be cutting off their nose to spite their face. Susan Roylance, national vice president of United Families of America which is behind the bill, testified before the Senate that contraception con-traception strikes at the basic integrity of the family unit. Teens are not mature enough to make these kinds of decisions. Michael Chulada, director direct-or of Planned Parenthood of Utah, the legislature is turning its back on the problems prob-lems of teen age pregnancy in this state. Utah has one of the highest teen age pregnancy rates in the country, coun-try, and Planned Paenthood is federally mandated to provide pro-vide counseling to people regardless re-gardless of age. If the bill passes, Planned Parenthood will be in violation of federal law if it complies with the state law. Many supporters of this bill think they're putting' Planned Parenthood out of business because we stand to lose 43of ourfund-ing. ourfund-ing. If this occurs we will seek to overturn the bill in federal courts. Sen. E. Verl Asay told the SenatePlanned Parenthood is a misnomer. They are anti -parenthood, and anti-family. anti-family. The relationship of the sexes has been constant for thousands of years. Now, almost overnight, that's all being changed, and the rate of abortions and promiscuity is going up. We are tiptoeing tiptoe-ing on venomous python eggs. Frances Farney, D-Salt Lake, and several other Democrats supported an amendment toSB 3 that would have removed restrictions on counseling and information infor-mation on counseling and information in-formation on contraception. Research indicates that teenagers who receive counseling become 'sexually active later in life. It Is completely unrealistic of us to expect young people to bring a note from their parents, especially in cases of children who are em otion -ally or sexually abused or disturbed. ' ''There is a widespread feeling feel-ing that if you don't discuss contraception you are im -proving the morality of young people, that the threat of pregnancy will keep young ladles virtuous. The threat of. pregnancy to stop pregnancy preg-nancy needs to be reconsidered. reconsid-ered. Why do we not have .faith in counseling? They request this information when they are already pregnant, preg-nant, not before. They have some freedoms,' they have some rights to ask." |