A publicly funded school in Louisiana has a policy of forcing female students it suspects of being pregnant to get tested. Positive? They get kicked out. Refuse the test? Kicked out, too.
Not only is this wrong from every aspect of human decency, it is illegal. The policy clearly violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which states that schools cannot exclude any student from an education program or activity, “including any class or extracurricular activity, on the basis of such student’s pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom.”
Apparently Delhi Charter School, in Delhi, Louisiana, doesn't care.
But we do. That's why the ACLU of Louisiana and the ACLU Women's Rights Project are taking on the school and its discriminatory, unconstitutional policy.
(It's not the only way that Louisiana schools are tromping on the U.S. Constitution. As a side note, check out these 14 not-so-true "facts" that students participating in the state's voucher program are being taught with public funding.)
Here in Montana, the ACLU is also fighting attempts to take away the rights of young women. Together with other members of the Montana Reproductive Rights Coalition we are opposing Legislative Referendum 120, which will be on the 2012 General Election ballot.
The measure seeks to require minors to notify their parents before getting an abortion. Never mind that an almost identical law has already been struck down by the courts in Montana. The Montana legislators who placed this referendum on the ballot think that young women should not have the right to control their own bodies.
That is patently wrong and definitely in violation of the Montana Constitution. Minors have the same rights as adults unless the state has a compelling reason to limit those rights. In this case, the courts rightly ruled that the state has exactly the opposite of a compelling reason to limit a minor's right to an abortion because requiring parental notification only serves to put the young woman at greater risk.
It's time we stop treating young women as if they are property for adults to control. They have a right to education and a right to control their own bodies. We must respect those rights.
