While most Iowa State students are too old to be affected by Iowa’s new parental notification law for abortions, there are still many within the university and Ames community that feel strongly about the law.

One local adult who works closely with young people said the law, if it’s allowed to stand, might have its heart in the right place, but that it overlooks certain situations.

“If [young people] have a caring family and everything is working out OK, parental notification is OK,” said Larry Zwagerman, a guidance counselor at Ames High School.

Iowa’s parental notification law has been temporarily halted pending a court decision.

When one of the 1,500 Ames High students raises the abortion question, Zwagerman said he prefers to get the student’s parents involved from the beginning.

“If there’s anything strange in the family, we can take another route. It could be [talking to] a pastor at their church, another adult, a brother or sister or some of the pregnancy referral services.”

In some ways, Zwagerman said he does not think that parental notification laws are necessary, especially since most institutions that deal with young people — churches, schools and others — encourage teens in trouble to talk to their parents first.

Melanie Sabelka, a junior in advertising, agreed that getting a parent involved is the right choice “99 percent of the time.” She said that she has friends who got pregnant when they were in high school, and that while each made different choices, their parents were involved.

Sabelka said that parental notification laws are “a good thing because the parents ought to know what their children are doing, especially at a time when [young people] are going to need more input from adults.”

She also pointed out that a young woman under 18 is not legally an adult, and that she should have to get permission from her parents in order to go through a medical procedure like an abortion.

However, Zwagerman said that if a teenager’s family situation is abusive, “it’s a tough call” whether parents should be informed.

Cases of rape, incest or family abuse also make it tough for those who would otherwise defend parental notification laws, opponents say.

Katie Cody, a freshman in exercise science, approves of notification laws because they may cut down on premarital sex and the number of abortions.

However, Cody also said that when a woman becomes pregnant due to rape or incest, she should not have to seek the permission of a parent or judge in order to obtain an abortion, no matter what her age.