Poll Finds Continuing Support for Abortion Rights

Seems logical to me that a minor should have parental consent for any medical treatment and not isolate abortion from any other medical procedure.

Seems two-thrids agree.

How about you BBB?

I am going to put my in. Yes, it is true, that for medical procedures, parental consent is necessary. But abortions seem to be a different breed of cat.

I can think of scenarios where a law mandating the notification of parents could cause more harm than good. For example:

Where the girl's father, or someone else in the family caused the pregnancy.

In cases where the parents are overly strict, and if the pregnancy were known, it could cause all kinds of havoc between the young girl and her parents.

Where the girl is terribly afraid of her parents, and may turn to a "do it yourself" abortion, rather than having to tell her parents.

Where the father is rather volatile, and could cause harm to the man who caused his daughter to become pregnant.

There are social, and emotional ramifications around abortions that don't even happen with other medical procedures.

What I might agree with, is a meeting with a judge (accompanied by a sympathetic counselor or social worker) to determine whether informing parents would have a positive or negative effect on the girl.

Good points, phoenix.

Maybe we should try requiring parental notification prior to becoming sexually active, before we require parental notification of an abortion.

If only they needed a doctor to become sexually active. I know! We could sew them shut!

Or make 'em wear really baggy clothes. Maybe a hood, too? Or even keep 'em all locked up.

FreeDuch and DrewDad


Why is it that males always want females to be solely responsible for pregnancy? Males are equally involved in pregnancy, some through rape, intimidation, seduction, etc. In most cases, the pregnant female is abandoned.

Why not require predatory males to be "sewn up" and required to wear chasity belts design to make it impossible to have sex. It's men who cannot control their sexual urges who are largely responsible for the problem.

Until men take responsibility for the behavior of other males and create social pressure to reform their attitudes and to take responsibility for their own sexual urges, females will not be safe from them. To blame the female is to blame the victim in most cases.

I agree with Phoenix regarding involving a judge's decision when a minor girl fears seeking abortion consent from her parents, gardians, or adults with whom she lives.

BBB

It was sarcasm, BBB, for precisely the argument you make. And I'm a woman.

You are forgiven.

BBB

Much appreciated. :wink:

That is an interesting idea Phoenix but to me it seems like an even bigger barrier for the young woman in question.

If she's afraid to tell her parents, chances are she is not receiving any medical care or involved with a social worker. To have to seek out this kind of aid, then go to a judge to get permission seems like a very high hurdle.

I don't even pretend to have a better answer though.

I find it very hard to believe that 2/3 of people believe that a spouse must be notified.

But the reference from BBB was:



Notification doesn't mean consent.

I'd like to see folks worrying as much about the cause of unwanted pregnancies as much as they worry about who does what to whom once the pregnancy is established.

But we can't teach 'em how to use a (gasp) condom! Let's only teach abstinence.

If they don't abstain, then we can't possibly have them (gasp) abort the fetus.

When the fetus is carried to term, we must (hooray!) make sure he or she is made to pray in public school!

But the baggy clothes are sooo sexy! Everybody knows pants sagging to your knees are a teenage aphrodisiac. You're just feeding their raging desires, Drewdad.

Re: Poll Finds Continuing Support for Abortion Rights

... or in other words, most Americans do support some not-so-severe cutbacks in abortion rights, cutbacks of the sort Alito found constitutional in his dissenting opinion on Planned Parenthood v. Casey. That throws some cold water on all those pundits who allege that Alito is way out of the mainstream. And there appear to be quite a few of them.

Pollingreport.com offers some more details about the poll. One detail I found interesting is that over the 90s, people's overall view of abortion rights has become friendlier, even if it changed slowly.

BBB
Let me clarify my support of Phoenix's statement. I'm a supporter of the unrestricted right to choose. In the case of minors, most girls who have good relations with their families can discuss their situation and collaborate on an acceptable solution. I'm concerned about the girl who is fearful of her family learning of her pregnancy for all the reasons already enumerated here. Most young girls only have information from their ill-informed peers. This child needs unbiased adult guidance the same as in any other life crisis. The ideal would be a trained counselor to provide support and who could be an advocate for the girl before a judge in states that require such procedure. Not all states have such requirements and a minor girl is free to obtain an abortion without interference.

The same applies to spouse notification. Not for permission, but only for intent. If a woman fears her spouse learning of her pregnancy, there are more serious problems in that relationship than abortion. We've finally had examples (via media attention) in the last five years of poorly understood criminality by spouses who murder their pregnant wives because they don't want to become fathers. No wonder some women might fear revealing their pregnancies.

BBB

I would think that it had been amply demonstrated that the social cost of restricting abortions is much higher than the social cost of allowing abortions.

Not that logic ever enters into the equation.

But for me, it is a human rights issue. A person is in charge of his or her own body.

Yes. That's why the German Supreme Court decided in 1975 that the person in the uterus can't just have her body aborted in the middle of the pregnancy. I'm not trying to re-argue that particular debate, just to point out that reference to human rights fuels it rather than settling it.

Spousal notification makes no sense as it is so simple to circumvent. A woman could simply say she is not married. The next step would be requiring women to notify the biological fathers. Slippery slope.