Does anyone not see the TYRANNY here? Busch refuses to even CONSIDER an amendment to this bill.

Lets see where that leaves us.
Your 15 year old daughter MUST get a parents approval for an earring piercing or a tattoo but a teacher can refer her to a local PP office to receive a very invasive surgical procedure which could lead her into depression or even death WITHOUT her parents ever knowing why.

What is wrong with this picture?

Personally, I find it disturbing that this is even an issue at all. Tattoos? Piercings? If the government is worried about the health and safety of children, they should be more concerned with providing housing for homeless children, ensuring education for those children, and getting crimiinals off the streets. Parents whose underaged children are getting piercings and tattoos without parental concent have more problems to worry about than whether it is legal.

When discussing specific legislation, could you please include the bill number in the post? That makes it much easier to find the text of the bill and the accompanying fiscal and policy note on the MGA's website (http://mlis.state.md.us/) Thanks.

It's HB 45. Just added a link to the entry.

Consider the facts:
As parents we are legally liable for our children and their actions until they are 18 years of age.
Thus we deserve the right to know about our children getting tattoos and abortions.
It's just that simple.
Thanks Annapolis for denying me my legal rights as a parent!
As a liable parent I have every right to know period!

Propose a bill then.

Don't try to tack it on to something else.

What's next parental permission for school field-trips, college-visits and abortion bills?

Why not just craft a bill and debate it like that? Why the rider?

Oh wait, someone wanted to make a political point through grandstanding.

Think of it as preserving the rights of the mother. If the child seeking the abortion was raped by her father, why should she be required by law to have parental consent for the abortion? That scenario is why every time this proposal is tried, it gets shot down. Regardless of your moral stance, you have to protect the victim in that case

"What's next parental permission for school field-trips"

You don't have kids do you?

Parental notification AND permission is required for field trips.

IF you had kids, would you not want to give permission for your daughter to receive a tattoo or an abortion at 14 years old?

Hey James you ignorant liberal
I have the right to know about an abortion for my daughter when she is under the age of 18 considering that I am her parent and I am legally liable for her! Too much coomon sense for you
or do you just get all warm and fuzzy and support everything your heroes do in Annapolis!

I have no opinion on parental consent of their child's abortion, but i will say that such an issue deserves its own debate on the floor of the General Assembly. The Democrats here aren't flexing political muscle to get a big policy win, they are using the rules of the GA to pass a bill without an improper amendment that would substantially impact a lot of people without the benefit of elected officials properly debating it in isolation (i.e., the debate would be constantly framed by whether or not tattoos need consent--a much less weighty issue, to be sure). This, jay, is James the "ignorant liberal"s point: regardless of the merits of parental notification for abortion, it is a major issue deserving of its own bill. That he presented it in a hostile tone doesn't diminish its relevance.

While in theory it makes sense to require parental consent for tattooing/piercing of a minor, and in fact no reputable studio will do a procedure without parental consent, the bill does not address the issue of enforcement. While it may technically require paperwork to be filled out and held on file for minors, all a violator has to do is destroy said paperwork and all proof of the infraction is lost. To assume that a minor that is going to have a tattoo/piercing done against the wishes of their parent but are then going to freely and truthfully admit to the name of the place that did it is ludicrous. To also exempt ear piercing done at mall kiosks and the like is also an irresponsible portion of the bill, considering that unless single use equipment is used and surgical grade metals in the jewelry, with proper training and sterilization it is very possible to contract diseases such as hepatitis and MRSA. Essentially all this bill does is impose fines that sound good in theory but are unenforceable in practice and fail to address other public health concerns.

Thank you, reps, for not using this bill to bring in the abortion issue or opening up an opportunity for a debate. This is an entirely separate issue. And kids will get tattoos--and abortions--in the black market anyway, since prohibition doesn't work. You'll never stop either of these, no matter how much law and paperwork you put in front of them.