high court to rule on parental consent for abortions

[me23]

today will decide if girls under 16 should be allowed abortion without parents consent.
what do you think?
should they be allowed?

[lucy5]

oh it's a difficult one.

[Hulababy]

I don't think so. I think they need the support of their family/friends, especially their parents, after the operation and as they try and come to terms with it later.

Children can't have other operations without parental consent. Not sure why this should be any different.

[starlover]

it's difficult isn't it?
if i had a daughter then i'd want to know... though i'd like to think i'd have a good enough relationship that she'd tell me anyway.

on the other hand, i can see why girls wouldn't want parents to know.

[mumfor1sttime]

This is a tough question, not sure on the answer myself.
I must say that I am hating Sally in Corrie at the moment. What is wrong with Rosie sleeping with him??

[tissy]

Hula, children can have other operations without parental consent though, if they are deemed able to understand the consequences, and complications etc. They can also refuse treatment against their parents' wishes (think there was a famous case recently of a girl refusing liver transplant)if they want to.

Tricky one. I think adolescents should have the same right to confidentiality as adults, but quite where the line should be drawn, I don't know.

[me23]

just to add if they rule parent should be informed, in the case of where the childs saftey is comprimised by abusive parents then the parents will not be informed.
it is difficult I understand why parent would want to know, If it happened to my daughter i would like to know but then I know I would be supportive.
Some children would be scared and rightly so if their parents found out, that they would be forced to continue with a pregnancy they do not want. these same parent might not be abusive in the courts eyes but netherless would force a decision that could have many unhappy ramifications. I understand that abortion can also cause anguish and upset.

[lucy5]

Its hard to sya because as a young person all the support you can get is necessary but for a child to be brought into the world against its mothers wishes has the potential to be damaging to all concerned.

[tonton]

I think I have to agree with the judge on this one. Of course ideally my daughter & I will have such a great relationship she'll come to me if she's in trouble. But looking back on my own childhood, I'd have rather have done it in secret (very religious parents). I think overall this ruling helps protect girls and that's more important than making parents feel good about themselves.

[lucy5]

Has the judge ruled already?

[tonton]

From the bbc website:
'But the High Court rejected a review of guidelines which state terminations do not need parents' consent and doctors should respect girls' confidentiality.

Mr Justice Silber, sitting in London, said Mrs Axon, or any other parent, had no right to know unless the child decided otherwise.'

[me23]

I just read the bbc website, I think the right decision was made.

[FairyMum]

I think it's a difficult one. I would worry that more teenage girls now think it's easy to have an abortion. Their parents don't even need to know.

[uwila]

I think the risk we face is an increase in teenage suicide. I think it a girl is faced to tell her parents, then she might just decide it's too much to cope with. Sadly, some girls will end their own life before they take on that situation.

Also, what about the boy's parents? Or even the boy? If her parents have a right to know, then who is next on the list?

[colditz]

If I had got pregnant at 14 (it could have happened!) and had to tell my parents before being allowed a termination, I would have killed myself. Full stop.

My father would have beaten me senseless every day until I moved out if he had heard that I was pregnant at 14. He didn't speak to me for 3 months when I was 2!

It would definately cause a rise in teenage suicide, depression, unwanted pregnancies, abandoned babies, and malnourished teen mums from trying to diet the weight gain off, leading to malnourished babies.

It would have damaged me far more as a 14 year old to have my parents told about my unwanted pregnancy that it would have done to have a termination alone.

[colditz]

"when I was 2" should read, of course, "when I was 22"!

[Bugsy2]

I also support the Judge's decision. Had I got pregnant before I was 16 I would rather have died than tell my parents and live with the consequences. I'm not saying that jokingly either. I would have had to run away, there is no way I could have stayed at home - it would have been a living hell.
I am not pro-abortion but I do think that sometimes it is one of the least damaging options. I very, very much hope that I have a good enough relationship with either ds or dd, that if they get pregnant or get someone pregnant, they could talk to me - but that is only my profound wish, not a certainty.
Better to be offered professional, confidential help & an abortion than have to run away or attempt suicide.

[Pruni]

Message withdrawn

[nooka]

You are right Pruni - and also if her child had asked for advice re. sexually transmitted diseases. I'm not sure why she felt she needed to do this to be honest, and I think that the judge made entirely the right decision.

[Heathcliffscathy]

the decision to keep the law as it stands was the right one imo

[izzybiz]

i did get pregnant at 16, and i was lucky that i had wonderful support from my parents and family. my dad found it very hard but would never disown me or tell me what to do, once my Ds was born he absolutley adored him. but like i say i was very lucky, not all girls have that kind of relationship.
i think its a very difficult one to judge, maybe doctors could try and judge the situation and ensure that these girls get some care afterwards.
i have also had to have a termination quite recently for medical reasons, and wasnt offered any counciling atall.

[homemama]

Pruni is right. The abortion bit is just to make headlines. The mother wanted a ruling which said that underage girls could not be given advice by a school councellor (inc info about abortion) without the parents consent.

These school health workers/pastoral teachers spend a lot of time and energy building up trust with the teenagers they make themselves available too. These kids must be able to feel that they can gain impartial and more importantly accurate advice about very distressing subjects. If teenagers felt there was nowhere to turn many may make a far more horrific choice.

I don't have daughters but having been a teenage daughter myself I know how difficult it is to talk to your parents regardless of how good a relationship you have with them. I would feel much more comfortable knowing that my daughter had someone offering her support and guidance rather than imagining her making a lonely, terrified decision.

[uwila]

I think that I would be even more opposed to parents being notified about birth control. The result would surely be an increase in pregnancies due to teenagers not having the access to birth control.

[wannaBe1974]

I disagree totally. I think each case should be judged on its own merrits, and I think that at 14 a young girl is not mature enough to be able to make a decision like that without the guidance of an adult. As parents we have to sign a consent to allow a school to put a plaster on a cut, and yet we're not allowed to be involved in perhaps the most devostating time of a young girl's life if she gets pregnant? It's all wrong. I know there are some parents out there who would react in a bad way if their daughters got pregnant, but I do think that those type of parents are in the minority.

Currently the age of consent is 16, and it is 16 because children (and let's face it that at 14 they are still children) are not considered to be mature enough to enter into a sexual relationship, and yet our children are given advice about contraception, allowed to have terminations, and maybe god forbit allowed to go through pregnancies and potentially give their children up for adoption without the knowledge of their parents? What kind of a society is it we are living in that condones teenage children having sex and aborting babies at will - no wonder we have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world.

[homemama]

The school nurse wouldn't arrange an abortion, just give a girl all the options available to her. If a teenage girl felt that the health worker would tell her parents then she would just try and get the information by herself or pretend it wasn't happening until her mother noticed when she was 7mths pregnant.

Sex education and advice on contraception does not encourage teenagers to have sex. It just makes it safer if they chose to do so.

[paolosgirl]

Absolutely agree, Wannabe. The vast amount of sex education we have in this country has done nothing to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy or STD's - in fact, both are on the increase - and yet the 'experts' seem to think the answer is to throw MORE education at kids

Your point about the plasters is spot on. I can't ask the school to give my DD a plaster or calpol, but a school nurse (and I work with a lot of them - am not impressed overall)can advise and help my dd to abort without MY knowledge? What if there were complications or worse???? I wouldn't even know that my daughter was in having surgery, and yet a school nurse would. It is not on.