Thank God my kids are still young. I have Stephen; 12, Savanna; 10, Shane; 8 and Kaitlyn; 2. I write a lot about things to help you out with younger kids (or that age range) and then today I saw a news article which prompted me to write to parents of older kids. If you are a parent of a younger child, keep reading because sooner or later this may affect you as well.
The Supreme Court today decided that the state of New Hampshire can continue to require parental notification of abortions by their minor children. I read the article, and am having a really hard time as a parent wrapping my mind around a fourteen year old getting pregnant in the first place, much less contemplating abortion.
For me, I am a conservative Republican (which I bet you guessed after my “Prayer in School” article) but I also lean more towards keeping abortion legal for safety reasons, even though I hate the idea of it in general. I have these feelings when it comes to grown women who are supporting themselves and making their own day to day decisions.
But what about a teenager who finds herself in such a predicament? Do we require that her parents are notified? What if her parents are abusive? What then? What if her parents are supportive and offer to raise her child instead of an abortion? How do we rule on something like this across the board? Should it be that minor children be required to notify an adult who will take responsibility and that the minor can choose said adult? Do we increase the law to include the teenage father? Should they have to notify their parents as well?
I’m very curious to find out from our parents here what you would want if this were your daughter. If it were one of mine, I would want to know. I would hope that my daughters would feel comfortable enough telling me or my husband before the state did, but nonetheless I would still want to know. I would also want to know if one of my sons was responsible for a girl who became pregnant. But, where does the line stop and start?