Something I should have added in my last post on this subject, was very important, and yet in my haste I neglected to add one very important detail. I asserted that a parent or parents have evry right to be informed when their young daughter attempts to have an abortion. Some people have taken this to mean that I am advocating that the girl should have their parents consent to have the abortion, that she should not be allowed to have one without her parents permission. Nothing could be furhter from the truth. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it is none ofthe parents business, they certainly should have no say in the matter. They simply have the right to be informed. After all, this is certainly a serious procedure being discussed here, much more serious, for example, than having a mole removed, which no respectful medical professional would perform on an underrage person without the knowledge of the parents. In a procedure such as this, indeed, the parents should be required to give their permission.
However, whether or not to have a child is arguably the most life altering decision a person can make. Way too many young girls actually decide to go through with a pregnancy, in fact I have known of young girls who have tried to get pregnant. They just have this desire to have a baby, and for a variety of reasons. Some get it in their heads that there is money they can make through government agencies, some are simply out for the love and nurturing companionship that comes from being a mother, or perhaps they think they can actually become a real adult through this process and possibly even get the "man" of their dreams.
Would any reasonable, sane adult person advocate that this is a matter of privacy, that the girls parents have no right to interfere or even to be informed of such a stupid activity as this on their daughters part? I would most certainly hope not. How, then, does it follow the parents have no right to be informed as to their daughters seeking an abortion? It doesn't make any sense.
I repeat, the parents should be informed, however, they should have no say in the matter, and the girl should be allowed to have the abortion. In fact, I would if I had my way about it take it even farther than that, and say that a young girl, under the legal age of adulthood, should actually not be allowed to go through with a pregnancy-with or without their parents consent and, for that matter, whether or not they themselves want the abortion.
Think about it. When a teenage girl goes through puberty, she is physically capable of becomming pregnant and carrying a baby, and of giving birth. This can happen as early in most cases at the age of twelve, and in some cases even earlier than this. There is just no legitimate reason for allowing this to happen. Seeing as how in most states it would be illegal for a girl that age to even consent to the act of sexual intercourse, then how does it follow that they should be allowed to become mothers, to give birth, to raise a child?
This is a case where religous and social extremism should give way to common sense, and to legitimate concerns for children, as oppossed to the religous claptrap that passes for it. For once, I would like to see both sides of an issue actually work for the benefit of the children they purport to want to protect, as oppossed to merely using them as the typical pawns they all so often become.
3 comments:
When I became a mother, a *young* mother, it changed me profoundly. I grew up, overnight no, but over nine months, yes. The day I found out I was pregnant I was not prepared to be a mother, but when my son was born, I certainly was. I realize that I might be the exception to the rule, and most teenagers might not be mature enough to become mothers. But they should certainly have the choice to.
By the age of sixteen, I lived on my own and was self-supporting and paying the bills and working and etc. etc. blah blah blah. I also would have ripped out the throat of anyone who tried to take my baby away. The proverbial "maternal instinct" shit is real enough...that grew in me over the nine months, too. Mother Nature puts that in women for a reason. One only hopes that nine months is enough time to transform a person from child to adult...it was for me.
There are always exceptions, but unfortunately they are rare. More often than not it is usually the grandparents who take cae of the child, once the birth mother finally catches on she hasn't given birth to a baby doll. Or somebody else does. Way too often, the child ends up becomming a burden to society.
Besides, how can it be illegal for a young girl under a certain age to have sex, and yet not be illegal for that same young girl to carry a baby, and give birth? It should be one way or the other.
Finally, by passing this law, it is taking it out of the hands of everyone that would force their children to go through with pregnancies they don't want to go through with. The child would be under no pressure to keep the baby, from anyone. And it would put an end to the underage pregnancy rate, or would drastically curtail it. Or at least the births from said pregnancies.
I can see your point. There are contradictions in everything. That's because everything is subjective. And... you're totally ignoring the fact that a great deal of this country's population believes that a fetus is a human being from concept-onion. :)To them, this law would just be murder... and, another thought, it would also lend a get-out-of-jail-free card to all those irresponisbile nimrods who might possibly give *some* thought to birth control at this point, but wouldn't even *need* to under a law like that. Then watch STD rates rise, because we all know these kids are going to fuck. Right?
-meow
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