How is a Pregnant Teen Suddenly a Woman?

[Accountable]

Read the Article here.

The latest Supreme Court case about abortion is to decide if a girl has to get permission from - or at least notify - her mommy and daddy before she gets an abortion. Since when does the bad judgment to get pregnant suddenly make a child an adult, capable of making life-altering decisions? *any bets the really angry people will not stay on the point?*

Unless and until we legally declare that life and citizenship begins when the first stem cell divides, abortion is no more than a simple procedure like a cyst removal, and therefore unworthy of having its own legislature. I believe I've made my personal beliefs on abortion in general clear in earlier posts not very long ago, so I won't go into that.

But a minor is a minor, legally unable to make adult decisions. Parents are - or at least should be - responsible for making such weighty decisions. I don't see how a teenage girl is suddenly and magically transformed into an adult simply because she gets pregnant. And yet, she still can't get liposuction, a tonsilectomy, or a tattoo without parental consent. Children need parents to make decisions for them, full stop. Abortion is no different. There are already procedures in place for children to get emergency medical care when the parents shirk their responsibility.

[Peg]

This is such a tough call. As the mother of a 16 year old daughter, I would hope I've raised my daughter to feel she could come to me with this. A lot of girls can't or feel they can't. I do not believe in abortion other than for medical reasons, but I would hope I wouldn't feel compelled to force my feeling onto my daughter. My main worry with making the girl tell her parents is that she may be so scared, she'd go to some butcher to do it.

[Accountable]

Originally Posted by Peg

This is such a tough call. As the mother of a 16 year old daughter, I would hope I've raised my daughter to feel she could come to me with this. A lot of girls can't or feel they can't. I do not believe in abortion other than for medical reasons, but I would hope I wouldn't feel compelled to force my feeling onto my daughter. My main worry with making the girl tell her parents is that she may be so scared, she'd go to some butcher to do it.

It's your job to "force your feelings" onto your daughter. You've been doing it all her life. Hopefully it took.

[Peg]

I don't want to get off topic especially so early in a thread, but it is not my job to force my feelings onto my children. It is my job to give them the tools they need to make wise decisions as the approach adulthood. The world doesn't need a younger clone of me.

I just asked my daughter, "If you were pregnant, would you tell me?" She said, "Yes." I asked, "If you wanted an abortion would you tell me?" She said, "yes". She doesn't believe in abortion either.

[Accountable]

Originally Posted by Peg

I don't want to get off topic especially so early in a thread, but it is not my job to force my feelings onto my children. It is my job to give them the tools they need to make wise decisions as the approach adulthood. The world doesn't need a younger clone of me.

It could do worse.

Okay that's enough! Back to the subject at hand!

It is apparantly legal for doctors and schools not to tell parents if a girl gets pregnant even though the age of consent is 16 in the UK (17 in N.I.) Are the moral well beings of children to be taken away from the parent altogether. I understand there are plenty of parents who are not fit to have children but ultimate responsibility must fall on the parent along with the help of schools and doctors

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/n...re/3942353.stm

So, what you are saying is that if the parent does not want the kid to have that child, it is up to the parent also?

[Accountable]

Originally Posted by flopstock

So, what you are saying is that if the parent does not want the kid to have that child, it is up to the parent also?

Yup. The parent's the decision-maker until that child is all growed up.

Originally Posted by Accountable

Yup. The parent's the decision-maker until that child is all growed up.

I could be wrong, but I think your statement is false. Unless you define all grown up as having a body which has reached its reproductive years.

[Accountable]

Originally Posted by flopstock

I could be wrong, but I think your statement is false. Unless you define all grown up as having a body which has reached its reproductive years.

I'm talking legality. Planned Parenthood is calling girls with functioning reproductive organs women, as if physical maturity automatically gives them emotional maturity. That's what the case is apparently about.