Guest Author - Candance Gordon

When you go in to have an abortion performed, you are asked a series of questions. They try to find out the date of your last period, ask you about your medical history, your family’s medical history, etc., and then, finally, “Is anyone forcing you to have this procedure done?”

I have had several hits on my site in the past couple of weeks from people searching whether or not parents can force a minor to have an abortion. As we already know, most states have some sort of parental notification or consent law for minors seeking an abortion, which is in place to prevent underage women from having an abortion. Therefore, logically, it would seem if a parent can stop their minor child from having an abortion, they can also make that child have an abortion if they don’t want their pregnancy to continue to term for any reason. Yeah, not so much.

According to every website and article I was able to find, a parent cannot make their teenage child have an abortion. As a matter of fact, if a parent does force their teenaged daughter to have an abortion, it is considered child abuse. Parents also don’t have the right to make their underage child put their baby up for adoption or kick them out of the house for being pregnant if they are still considered a minor by their state. Parents who do so can be charged with neglect and endangerment of a child.

Proponents of parental notification/consent laws say these laws are in place because parents should have the right to know their child is pregnant and to help them with (or make for them) this difficult decision. They say parents should be involved if their child has any medical procedure and abortion falls under that definition. However, those same rights do not exist if the parent knows that their child is not ready to become a parent and, as would be the case with me if my underage daughter got pregnant, are not willing to take on the responsibility of raising their grandchild. To me, both sides of the issue seem more like attempts by the anti-choice side to limit a woman’s access to abortion than an attempt to protect the safety of children.

As a person who very much believes my body, my choice, I don’t believe we have the right to force anyone, regardless of their age, to have an abortion just as much as I believe that we don’t have the right to tell someone, regardless of their age, they can’t have an abortion. But, if we take the anti-choice stance of parents know what’s best for their child, wouldn’t it then seem I, as the mother of my child, would know if it’s best for her to terminate her pregnancy? I don’t feel like it can be both ways if it’s really the best interest of the pregnant teen we’re considering and not what best fits some political agenda.

What do you think?