Against Parental Consent

No, a minor shouldn't have to get her parents' permission, or even notify them, to get an abortion

Is a B average evidence that a pregnant teenager isn’t intelligent or mature enough to make the decision to end an unwanted pregnancy? That was the argument of judge Jared E. Smith in Hillsborough County, Florida, who denied a teenage girl’s request for a judicial bypass to end her pregnancy without the involvement of her parents. She appealed and won, but a dissenting judge on the panel wrote that “the majority discounts most of the trial court’s concerns regarding Doe’s overall intelligence, emotional development and stability, and ability to accept responsibility.”

It’s interesting logic: A teenage girl who apparently lacks the intelligence, emotional development, stability, and responsibility to have an abortion is sufficiently intelligent, emotionally developed, stable, and responsible to carry, birth, and raise a human child.

The truth is this: There is not one single scenario in which a person is not mature, emotionally developed, stable, or responsible enough to decide for themselves whether to have an abortion but is mature, emotionally developed, stable, or responsible enough to raise a child. Not one.

There is also not one single scenario in which a person is not mature, emotionally developed, stable, or responsible enough to decide for themselves whether to have an abortion but is mature, emotionally developed, stable, or responsible enough to consensually surrender their child for adoption. Not one.