by Melisande Luna

Created on: May 30, 2007

While the argument for parental consent has many valid concerns, ultimately I have to argue to the contrary simply due to the fact that many parents aren't exactly sane, to put it in no uncertain terms. Many parents are out of touch with their own teen experiences, they've let fundamental religious beliefs cloud their compassionate judgment, or are simply abusive.

If the teenager felt she was mature enough to engage in sexual practices and suffered pregnancy as a result of neglectful parenting, i.e. was not given access to birth control, then surely the same young girl should be allowed to take care of her problem without involving potentially repressive and/or abusive parents.

While abortion should not be a substitute for birth control, the expectation of total abstinence in the face of raging teen hormones is equally ridiculous. The truly sane and compassionate thing that we as a society could do is to allow these young girls greater access to information and preventative health care services BEFORE they get themselves in a situation that limits their options in such a way as to have to even consider an abortion as their only alternative.

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