by Linda Steinbiser

Created on: August 18, 2007

The very question answers itself. These are CHILDREN we are talking about. While we all feel we can make up our own minds as to what we want to do, children do not have the mental capacity to think things through. They are growing, physically and mentally, and always feel they know more than their old fogy parents. They made the choice to have unprotected sex. Now they have to deal with the consequences with-out the faintest idea of the aftermath that will continue for the rest of their lives.

Our society has a tendency to shelter their children to preteens and then just turns them loose, to make their own choices. Why would anyone allow someone they love, who is not mature enough, to make their own rules? There is a time when the parent is suppose to be the parent and set laws in force to protect the child from itself. Instead, the parent, whether tired of the fighting or totally uncaring of the child, allows them to do as they please and make their own rules or laws. Are we really that lazy that we can't be bothered with our children until they are at least in college?

Assuming the parents have explained to their children about the dangers of unprotected sex and the child has decided she knows better than the parent and engages in unprotected sex is disobedience in action. That act involves the child or children themselves. Are they now going to be allowed to make a decision without the benefits of parental counseling when it concerns a life? These are children who see the here and now and not the future. For them, just making up their mind what to wear to school is a major dilemma! And they should be allowed to have an abortion without parental consent? I don't think so.

I was born of an unwed mother who decided to have me and give me to a family that could do more for me than she could. But, she was 19 years old. The choice of abortion is a choice of what is right and what is wrong. It is a choice of what the consequences are later for both the child having the baby and the baby itself. An underage child has no idea of how life is carried out, she views it in a very limited way. She needs her parents to present the facts of an abortion or birth to her in ways she has never considered. And the fact that no matter how badly she wants to rid herself of this child, it will always be there whether she chooses abortion or adoption or raising it.

Children are just that. Parents are expected and required to raise their children until 18 years of age. This is too big of a decision for a child to take into their own hands. To have an abortion without parental consent usually means the child does not want the parent to know what it has been doing. To them, it is no different than shoplifting a pack of gum and getting away with it. They don't want to face the consequences of telling their parents so they run to have an abortion. Emotionally it will show up some time in their lives and they will have to deal with it. Doctors, of all people, know this. And while they give advice, it is not their child they are dealing with.

Whether or not the child has the abortion in the end is not the question here. The question is should they have their parents consent. And I feel it is totally wrong for a child to have an abortion without the parents knowledge and their right to counsel their own child as to the facts of life. Doctors and government have overstepped their line of authority to allow abortion to minors without parental consent. Children are too immature to deal with this themselves and for the good of the child, parents need to be involved.

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