In the ever-present war between left and right, no battle is more fiercely fought than the one over abortion — and the unfolding controversy in our own backyard is living proof that common sense and decency are among its most frequent and lamented victims.

In case you missed it, the mother of a 15-year-old Ballard High School student is livid after the health center on campus earlier this year helped her daughter obtain an abortion during school hours without notifying her parents.

Swedish Medical Center, not the school district, runs the clinic at Ballard High and isn’t legally required to inform parents when a student requests assistance with a medical problem — which is what the law considers an unwanted pregnancy.

Washington is one of only a handful of states with such laws, and it’s no coincidence it’s also one of the most liberal, since abortion is arguably the one issue more than any other that defines one’s political affiliation.

In this case, it’s resulted in pro-choice advocates instituting a policy that can’t make sense even to them.

By an ironic coincidence, a new Washington law this year — authored by a Democrat, in fact — prohibits minors from even go to a tanning parlor without parental consent.

Have we reached the stage as a society where we think a sun tan is a more serious matter than an abortion?

If there was no such procedure as abortion, no one in their right mind would condone a law that would allow a school to facilitate and a clinic to treat so much as a hangnail without the student’s parent being notified.

But such are the passions about abortion that we’re willing to sacrifice common sense and a parent’s right to raise their children as they see fit on the altar of political opportunism.

Ultimately, this isn’t about abortion. It’s about doing what’s best for children, and heaven help us if that’s suddenly become less important than scoring political points.