Several bills have been introduced in the Connecticut legislature with a common sense provision that would require parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor child in the state.

Yet, while noting her support for women's rights during a Town Hall meeting in Canterbury recently, state Sen. Heather Somers, R-18th District vowed not to allow any of these bills aimed at increasing information and protecting children to come up in the Public Health Committee, which she chairs. Another measure would educate 16- and 17-year-old pregnant girls on their options, which is already a requirement for younger girls. Is that unreasonable?

Parental notification proposals ensure girls are not subject to the control of sexual abusers. In 2014, a Coventry fire chief impregnated a 15-year-old fire cadet during a two-year relationship, and paid for her abortion unbeknownst to her parents.

A parental consent requirement could have short circuited kidnapper and child rapist Adam Gault of West Hartford, who kept a teen runaway captive for a year. In 2007, police arrested Gault after DNA from the girl’s aborted fetus was linked to Gault, who had forced her to get the abortion. The 15-year-old had been missing for a year. A parental notification rule could have disclosed Gault’s enslavement of the girl sooner.

In both cases, abortion clinic workers failed to report the incidents to authorities. The failure to do so prolonged the abuse of both girls and raises questions as to whose interest they were protecting. Perhaps requiring a parent or guardian’s signature on a piece of paper, attesting that the child is their’s, would raise suspicions and give abortion clinic workers evidence to report suspected abuse to the proper authorities.

Connecticut is one of only a few states without such requirements. Let’s be clear about this; the legislation only aims to keep children safe and informed. It would have little impact on the abortion rate in Connecticut.

Somers’ remarks followed state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff’s vow to “block any anti-women, anti-choice bill... from coming up for a vote.” He called the bills “extreme” and “radical.” What can be so extreme as to provide more information, more choices, and ensure that the abuse of children is not being hidden?

Then again, this is the same majority leader who cannot pass a state budget that lasts more than a few months without gutting hospitals, raising taxes, and forcing jobs out of state. Yet, Somers is following his lead. Are these senators endorsing the status quo that allows children to be sent back to their abusers after an abortion? Just who are they working for?

Please tell Somers to allow public hearings on these simple but important bills to protect the women and children we care about.

Christopher O’Brien is vice president of the group Connecticut Right to Life. He lives in Wolcott.