Letters to the Editor
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A little logic
"I guess I'm a social conservative: I just don't think teenagers should be making decisions like this on their own,"
Then, logically - teenagers who become pregnant and decide to have the child should be required to notify their parents, and provide documentation of the notification to the state. Right? If you decide not to have an abortion, by default you decide to have the child. They're both decisions. If it's truly about involving the parents in the decision-making process - not just when the decision is to have an abortion - then ALL girls who become pregnant should be required to document the notification. Not just those seeking an abortion.
What about the fathers? They're half of the parenthood equation. Shouldn't they be required to document that they notified their parents that they got a girl pregnant? That'd be popular.
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Not quite
"I am a feminist. "
No. No you are not.
No true feminist would hold other women in such contempt.
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As ye So, So shall ye reap...
Majority laws came about just as much for the sake of keeping children children - out of the job market, for example - as for keeping children safe. And keeping "children" out of the job market is just one more form of limiting freedom - as is restricting the control a young woman has over her body, not to mention her life. Absent other forms of education - withheld from the young woman in the interest of "protecting" her "innocence" - actually making decisions of this sort and living with their consequences may finally move her to behave as the adult she has demanded she be acknowledged. Ms So, you are mistaken in this and I implore you to reconsider.
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You've Got to be Kidding
If a girl feels comfortable telling her parents about her pregnancy, then she will involve them in the decision, whether or not a law exists. If a girl cannot tell her parents, you can damn well be sure there's a good reason -- whether the threat of physical violence exists or not. If you're afraid that your daughter won't come to you should she find herself in this position, then I would explore the real reasons rather than imposing this Draconian law on others whose very well-being may be at stake by this revelation. This writer's argument is a most twisted and common rationale, and generally accompanied by the disclaimer "I'm a feminist, I'm pro-choice." I'm sorry, but choice is surely lost for many girls who when mandated by law to disclose their pregnancy, are subject to the authority of the parents in whom they do not trust for whatever reason. I cannot fathom how women, in particular, can forget what it was like to be a teenager . . . how they can be so oblivious to the genuine suffering a girl will endure as a result of what amounts to a legislated scarlet letter. Yes, sometimes notifying a parent amounts to a lifetime of unending emotional abuse which could be deemed scarlet. Please don't call yourself a feminist when you're prepared to strip the youngest among us women of their essential right to privacy in a most sensitive situation. Call yourself anything else, but a feminist you are not.
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A case against parental notification
In many states,if a minor is pregnant or gives birth to a child, that minor is considered to be emancipated. {Town v. Anonymous (1983-6), 39 Conn. Supp. 35, 467 A.2d 687 (Super. Ct. 1983), Champagne v. Passons, 95 Cal. App. 15, 272 P. 353 (3d Dist. 1928)}
So, if a minor must tell her parents about her pregnancy in order to terminate it, and is blocked by her parents from terminating it, she may end up legally allowed to make her own medical decisions a few months later, after she's been forced to carry through with a (potentially dangerous, potentially fatal) pregnancy. It's absurd.
There is, extant in the law, a recognition that when a minor becomes a parent, in significant ways she is no longer a minor. That recognition takes into account the significant transformation in responsibilities that occur when minors become pregnant that neccessitates independence of action from their parents. That independence should be extended to minors who intend to terminate pregnancies.
It may be cosy and rosy to want to protect that minor, and force her family into a semblance of support for what Ms. So feels is a traumatic decision for a young person. Howver, simply because it would be comforting to imagine that this law will result in more young women being supported during a difficult time does not mean that will be the result. The purpose of a proposition is not to comfort you, Ms. So. It is to set policy for the state of California.
And, as to parental notification laws combining with a 'rational teen sex drive' to reduce abortion, are you against the HPV vaccine? Ms. So, you positively must be! Because if teens are so terribly rational, then the best way to prevent them from having sex is making the consequences more dire. And it doesn't get more dire than cancer.
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Ms. So, you're a ding dong.
No other medical procedure requires parental consent. Treatments for AIDS and STDs don't require parental consent. Why single out this particular procedure? Why single out girls? Why not single out boys for having sex? You know why - because it's physically harder to spot.
You, madam, are an idiot.
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you broadsheet gals are CRAZY
You obviously want to be there to help your daughter with any emotional issues that arise during an abortion, but most kids dont have parents who are so forgiving.
What about all the poor teens in with crazy religious parents. I know many who would rather commit suicide than tell their folks they had sex. Many feel their parents would be disgraced, have the scorn of the church upon them, and never allow them the consent to have an abortion, more likely they would be thrown out of the home.
You obviously have no idea what its like to live in a small town with parents who arent their kids best friend.
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There are other ways of getting an abortion
In Oregon, we are voting on a similar bill, Measure 43. The first thing I thought when I read it was "Why don't they just call it the back alley abortion bill?"
There are so many things wrong with the logic behind such a bill that I don't know where to begin. But chief among the logic flaws was that a teen desperate for an abortion would stay in legitimate medical channels even after that avenue had been shut off from them.
I don't have children, but I would hope that if I did I would have made it more than clear to them by their teen years that absolutely nothing they wanted to discuss would be off limits. If they hadn't come to understand this, I don't know what a mandatory letter could accomplish to make the situation better.
But it is also possible that even knowing my promise to listen, a child might fear to approach out of shame or embarrassment. Sad as that would make me, I would infinitely prefer that she get a safe abortion in a decent clinic than to seek out a desperation procedure god knows where.
Other than that, as a man, I can't imagine living in a world where people assume the right to control such a fundamental aspect of my physical and spiritual existence.