Should minors be required to get parental consent?

Question

I am against all forms of abortion but this one tops the cake:

Heard a story coming out of Massachusettes about a 16 year old girl who went to her nurse in school because she was pregnant.

As it turns out, this nurse suggested an abortion clinic......and did not notify the parents of the girl first!!! What is our world coming to???? This is ridiculous.

You need a signed note by the parent to give out a freakin' aspirin.....but nothing for suggestng a medical procedure????

Should parental consent for minors be put into law?

Breakfast Monkey:
I heard this from the mother on the radio on "Jay Sekulow Live" earlier today.......no names were released on the air. His lawyers were seeking legal action against the schoolwhen I last heard

Answer 1

I agree with you...my oldest niece was almost aborted and God intervened and made sure my parents found out. She is now a beautiful young lady with a husband and a son of her own. It hurts to think she might not have been.....and what about the children who were aborted....there might have been another great genius...the person who God had designed to find the cure for cancer or to solve the problem with global warming but now we have to live without them.
Yes put parental consent into law...They are children having children. (And women who have abortions later spend years grieving and without good counseling and God's healing they live damaged for the rest of their lives...who would wish that on anyone. There is a woman in my church who had an abortion and has a ministry to help other women find healing)

Answer 2

In Washington State (my home), kids as young as 12 do not need parental consent for many medical decisions. I work in a pharmacy and once the child asks us to no longer inform the parent of the medications he or she is taking, we cannot discuss it legally with the parent. One of my friends, who is also an OB/GYN has to deal with this all the time. Although she doesn't perform abortions, she does provide check ups for young women who feel they are pregnant. When the parents come in and complain that they weren't informed and want to know exactly what happened, they are told that not only can the doctor not discuss it with them, by trying to force the doctor to discuss the issues is a crime and the police can and will be notified. It's certainly a difficult situation. I understand both points of view. Quite often a young lady wants birth control to help her with her periods or her acne but is too afraid to discuss this with her parents because she fears that they will think she just wants to have sex. What many parents forget is that the young lady can purchase over-the-counter birth control so responsible sex can happen no matter what. Maybe the young lady does want to have sex. I think that it shows a level of responsibility that she wants to avoid pregnancy. I would rather she doesn't have sex, but I can't stop her. The parents really don't have a right in this case, even though they think they do. We don't know exactly how the abortion was done. She may have simply taken a pill. There may not have been any surgery at all. Due to the sensitive nature of the situation, it's hard to find details. Reading up on how this mother is and seeing her in interviews, I can definitely see why a young lady didn't want to confide in her mother. At no point did her mother seem upset that her daughter got laid. Instead, she's upset that she stopped being pregnant without mommy's consent. I would much rather this young lady get an abortion from a trained doctor than from her best friend behind the school with a coat hanger.

Answer 3

Just as a minor's medical records are available to their parent or guardian until they are of legal age, this too should be available to the parent. I think the nurse probably thought she was doing the best she knew to do. I don't completely fault the nurse really. She probably also assumed that the child was going to inform the parents of what is going on. There are too many ways to get around the system for a child to hide his or her actions. A child and a parent need to talk to one another. I don't think they need to hide from one another at all. I tell my parents everything, even though I'm an adult and on my own now. I still call them for advice and to tell them what is going on in my life because they care. They always give advice, but they know that I will follow my own wisdom but always value what they say. I think this is kind of stuff that you describe is happening too often. I do think that any medical procedure should be put in records accessible to the parent until a child is 18. After that, it is a different story. Also, nurses in schools like this one should be able give advice on both abortion AND adoption. Both should be seen as options for the student. They should also tell about the programs where anyone can give a child to a safe place within 72 hours with no questions asked.

Answer 4

Seeing that a minor (anyone under the age of 18) and who lives with their parents, all health care should be consented by the parents (or legal guardians) it does not matter from simple asprin being given or having one's tonsils removed. What would happen to a secret "botched" abortion? The child could die because they parents did not know in time on how to act for the best medical care for their child. While they are trying to figure out what could be wrong, the child slips away and dies.

Yes, Minors should be required to get parental consent in all medcial decisions.

Answer 5

I personally really would rather not ever get an abortion however here's the problem: minors are not physically READY to bear children. It's better to have an abortion at a clinic than have to get one illegaly in an unsafe way.

I'm not saying that an abortion and an aspirin are the same things, but some young girls are not blessed with caring understanding parents who would allow them to do the right thing.

Answer 6

Yes...but... only if provision is made for the girl to go to the court in safety and ask for protection from harm from abusive parents. And the coursts must have limits placed so that the clause may not be used to prevent parents from knowing what is going on just because the judge is pro abortion.... and in the same way... the girl must be protectred from parents who would force her to have an abortion when she dose not want it... regardless of age... a mother is a mother and if she wants the child... or wants to give it for adoption rather that have an abortion the law must protect and support her.

Answer 7

i don't believe in abortion as a form of birth control, but i do think that there are certain cases that it is fine. for example: rape victims, incest victims, life or death for the mom, ecctra...ect..ect....
i don't think that the nurse should have told the girl only about abortion. i think that the nurse should have told the young girl about all of her options....abortion, raising the baby, closed adoption, open adoption. the nurse should have offered to be moral support for the girl while she told her parents that she was pregnant, but i don't think that the nurse should have told the parents herself. of course if the girl was younger than 14 years old and was the pregnant then the nurse should tell someone because it could be sexual abuse. i'm sorry ...i'm probably confusing you, but i believe that each situation is different and different rules apply. sorry i couldn't help, but i do feel that if a 16 year old wants an abortion then it is her right to have one, but young girls shouldn't use it as a form of birth control. parents and teachers need to except that 16 year olds are having sex and make sure that birth control, condom, pill, foam, sponge, diaohram...and any other forms of birth control is available to the teenagers. also i think that the parents should sit down with their children when then turn 12 or 13 years old and have the birds and the bees talk with them. and don't just say wait till you are married. give them pamphlets to read, take them to a doctor, or a family planning center (boys too) make sure that their kids are informed, and then explain to them that its okay to wait. tell them that when their friends are bragging about having sex ....that their friends are full of sheet...because no 15 or 16 year old is mature enough, confident in their bodies enough, or skilled enough to have great sex. and that the old saying that its better to wait for the one you love is true.
i am going to tell my kids that i wish that they would wait until they are at least 19 years old....but i'm not stupid...teenagers have sex.

Answer 8

This is very ironic. The same people that won't allow a child to take an aspirin is school will help them lie to their parents and get them involved in what could turn out to be a very dangerous physical procedure ( I say that because a doctor has taken an oath to "do no harm") so this procedure is seldom medical.. Jim

Answer 9

hmmm... i dont think the consent for minors is the best idea.. in fact when it was on the ballot two years in a row, i voted against it... (and it didnt win.. at least in CA)

you have to remember that some kids dont have a good relationship with their parents...
some parents are abusive.. just horrible..

although i DO agree that the school nurse was in the wrong.. she should have NOT told the girl that AT ALL.. but encourage her to talk to her parents.

i believe in abortion for these reasons and these reasons ONLY:
-rape
-threat to mother's life/health.

thats it..

Answer 10

No. If a teenager ends up pregnant, you can pretty well assume that her parents didn't do a very good job raising her to that point. Why should they then have a say in a decision that is going to effect the rest of the teenager's life? They should have done their job right in the first place. Nobody has the right to force another person to have a baby. Now, if the teenager decides to have the kid, yeah you should notify the parents, since they'll most likely be raising the kid themselves.