to be perfectly honest its hard to disagree with you on this one. this is a tough one. a 13 year old pregnant girl is never a good situation. but all i know is that as a parent, i don't want my CHILD to be able to be given an overdose of progestin without my consent. I want to be the one who takes care of my kid. i want to be PART of the decision. for the government to step in and say that I don't deserve to be part of that decision is unfair. THERE ARE RISKS. getting pregnant as a 13 year old is bad enough. now the government wants to help these 13 year olds hide these pregnancies from their parents. thats really all this is about. and i am not sold on the fact that its a good idea.
I understand and agree - it is tough. It may surprise you to know that I actually agree with you generally, even if we might disagree about some specifics. As a parent, I too would want to be informed and involved and be a part of the decision, because that's what parents are supposed to do.
My positions are:
- Make the pill available over the counter;
- Require pharmacists to either dispense it or have someone else dispense it if they have personal objections;
- Make it available without parental notification if the person asking is over the age of consent.
My other point (which angered some of you) was that, faced with a pregnant teen, the
scope of a parent's authority becomes a little muddier. These are difficult issues...
Ask yourself, seriously and dispassionately: can a parent decide, on behalf of his or her pregnant minor daughter, to continue an unwanted pregnancy? Can that parent force the minor to subsequently care for the infant (e.g. by requiring that she breast feed the infant)? Can the parent put the newborn infant up for adoption, without the Mother's consent? Remember, the teen is now a parent herself - so the very authority you are arguing allows the parent to do that is the authority that the teen now possesses.
It's unlikely that we can codify every possible situation in the law, but these are questions that inform us on how we want to structure the law and what the intent behind it should be. My position is that a minor is still an independent human being with rights and that she has a real interest in the decisions made on her behalf by her parents. As such, she should at least have a voice in those decisions and sometimes that voice should be heard loudly and respected.