There has been a proposition 73 that was meant to be voted on today. The prop is to require doctors to inform parents of girls who are under age 48 hours before a medical procedure that would be an abortion. Obviously if there is a proposition about the issue there are people who believe a minor should be able to abort a fetus without parental notification (not to be confused with consent). Notice that people under age cant be given aspirin (e.g. from school nurse), sign contracts, vote or even consent to any minor medical procedure. Now with a big issue like abortion there are a group of people who believe kids should be able to choose and consent to making a decision as big as terminating pregnancy.
At first thought letting kids get an abortion without having to notify their parents is a ridiculous notion just by observing the basic laws about all the limits minors have for being under 18 years old. There is such thing as emancipation if you want to hit the age of majority before you reach 18. Unfortunately I am sure you need parental consent for that as well. One way or another my immediate argument would be for a child to renounce their dependency on their parents and become emancipated somehow or petition for a law to be considered an adult earlier in life for your emergency social condition that we will call knocked up since this is the issue that has been brought up by proposition 73. This would mean you have no need for parental support at all; monetary or emotional support.
I personally cant imagine raising a child all the way up to the point where she is a troubled teen who gets pregnant, becomes scared of me as a parent then takes it upon herself to dispose of a part of my family. Now that is a very simple way of looking at it and is how it would be if family is important. What is more important is the relationship I have with my child that she or he would come to me with a pregnancy in the first place. I would feel personally responsible at failing as a parent if my child didnt want my support in any endeavor she or he was involved in.
The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about this and one quote from a 16 year old wants to vote because of her pregnant cousin who wants to model and play basketball but can’t because of her pregnancy. So this 16 year old has been raised to not value responsibility and that is a family value. To be irresponsible would be considered a poor family value by most people and getting an abortion for such superficial reasons is disgraceful. I am sure it is inconvenient to have a child at 16 and so is just about everything else in life outside of your bedroom.
What is not being conveyed to people these days is that they shouldnt be having sex in the first place at certain ages (parents should be passing along that value as well). Thanks MTV! If you cant have kids or really dont want kids dont have sex. As unrealistic as that seems it doesnt seem people are even making an attempt to dissuade their kids from having sex and have them realize what they are going to be responsible for if they decide to indulge in adult activities. That talk could be had for working (taxes), drugs (intoxicating stupor), alcohol (more intoxication) and other social activities that you arent meant to do by age of 17.
There is a divide again by what some people think about family and some people think about law and government. I am sure you can see by my above comments that I am partial to family and believe family is paramount to just about anything especially government. In a situation where family is a way to reinforce relationship is a priority the parents would insist that their children use them as a sounding board to encourage or discourage their kids. Yes, it is called parenting. Now the parents have a responsibility to their kids as well which is to make sure they, as parents arent to be feared as to keep communication open.
Even if the parent/child relationship is terrible and even if there is fear from the kids to the parents the parents should still be involved. To tell parents that you are pregnant is very uncomfortable and then to proceed to say that you are about to get an abortion has to be much more uncomfortable. Even with all that discomfort I cant imagine having life as we know it ripped from your body being less of a discomfort than confiding in your family.
Lets hallucinate that you dont want to tell mom and dad because you will get a severe beating. The only way you would know that you were going to get beat is if you have been beaten before. If you havent been hit or beat by your parents it would be unreasonable to project your fears onto their behavior. So lets say for this example that they have beat you once or more to give you the evidence you need to not tell them that you are pregnant in the first place. The element of a home where a child feels abused is a completely different problem and shouldnt be bundled with this one. What I mean is if there is abuse in the home why wait around to get pregnant to start making choices to keep yourself safe? If your argument is that she or he cant leave because those are his parents and that is all she or he knows then you should stay in your home and keep respecting your parents who you don’t want to leave and let them be involved in your life just as they always have been. Although I ultimately believe this is a separate issue and I think fear of being beaten isn’t just an argument for getting pregnant but it an excuse to not tell your parents anything.
If you dont care about the family unit I suppose you should get the age of majority reduced and understand that if there is no family than your parents become a government that doesn’t do much to raise you besides give you food stamps and a social worker and all you have are consequences and no explanations.