Last Wednesday many students, faculty and parents gathered at the quad at Ventura College to hear opposing sides of the widely contested Prop. 73, which requires an underage girl to nofity her parents 48 hours before having an abortion.

Katie Short, one of the co-authors of Proposition 73, and Christine Lyon, vice president of public affairs of the Santa Barbara Planned Parenthood, were impassioned during their hour-long discussion.

“A secret abortion does not help a minor who’s being abused,” said Short.

“A minor doesn’t know what to look for in an abortion provider.”

The debate was coordinated by the VC chapter of the national group Students for Academic Freedom. They are headed up by Katie Teague and Terri Landes.

“The reasons SAF is having the debate is that we believe that students should be exposed to all sides of an issue,” said Teague via e-mail. “And what better way than a debate?”

Prop. 73 is one of the most contested propositions that will be on the ballots November 8. It’s caused a lot of contention because it limits the freedom of an underaged person who would be seeking to have an abortion. The second hot topic of the day is if prop. 73 passes it will add a definition of abortion to the California State Constitution for the first time. It defines abortion as: “death of the unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born,” which many people fear will begin the road to making abortions illegal again.

Short argued that prop. 73 is necessary because underage girls cannot get a flu shot, a cavity filled, or an aspirin from the school nurse without parental notification, why should she be able to get an abortion?

“Prop 73 is a wake-up call to parents to what their daughter’s doing, what she’s thinking, and who she’s hanging out with,” Short says. “A secret abortion does not help a minor who’s being abused.” She believes that a notification law would decrease the amount of underage abortions in California, and that parents need to know what their daughters are doing.

Lyons argued that prop 73 was a violation of a girl’s right to have an abortion without telling her parents. “The programs we have are working” she said. “We don’t need an initiative like this. We need sex education.” She is afraid that in cases of abuse, rape or incest the child shouldn’t have to alert her parents before getting an abortion.

Short says that in those cases, the courts need to be involved so they can protect the child from further abuse. She explains that in many cases of “secret abortions” the father of the unborn child is overage and pressures the girl into giving up the child.

Lyon’s platform seems to be the more popular one among the students present at the debate.

“Its taking a woman’s right to choose away” said Samantha Warren a student and mother of two

Students gather on the VC campus, enthralled by an informative debate concerning the heated topic of Proposition 73. (David Arias)