Got Parental Consent?

[asterroc]

A recent CNN article about parental notification laws in New Hampshire got me thinking. As I understand it, the argument goes that parents are legally responsible for all that children do, so they should be notified if their minor child has an abortion. Furthermore, some states go on to say that the minor even needs parental consent to have the abortion, again presumably because the adults are older and wiser than the child (as evidenced by her unprotected sex, or her inability to prevent her rape). For me, this begs quite a few questions.

1. This one (set) is probably already written in each parental consent law, but I've never heard it mentioned. Does the minor need the consent of both parents/guardians? Or only one? What if they disagree? What if one parent has custody? What if the minor is a ward of the state?


2. If a minor is forced to have an unwanted child by her parents (or even if she wants the baby), who is legally responsible for the well-being of the baby?


3. If the parents are given the right to prevent an abortion, shouldn't they also have the right to force an abortion?

And with those happy thoughts, I bid you good night!

Comments

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

1) Should be but might not be. I think the joint custody would probably be the primary custody parent. 50/50 splits are very rare when the child is old enough to be having a baby. The ward of the state would be one hell of a political issue if the girl wished to abort and was forced to have a baby. Or just in general.
2) Thats a good question. That would be one for the courts to decide, but it would probably be the childs grandparents.
3) They should, but the writers of this law would think that to be the most horrible thing ever for parents to do.
That being said, if the child is old enough to have sex, it should be their choice. I don't believe in parents forcing their morals on a child, good parents should encourage children to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong for themselves, and rely on the example they set to help the child find what matters to them. Especially when it is a decision that will have major psychological ramifications. I stand by the fact that when an ex of mine had an abortion, it was the right thing, but I still wonder, and I wasn't carrying the baby.

[sammka.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on how invasive you consider an abortion, and the alternative.

Parents have to consent to surgeries on their kids, but they can rarely FORCE elective surgeries on nonconsenting kids. I mean, there's really little out there to protect kids from this, but I imagine that if the kid really really resisted, and made their views known to the doctor, and somehow managed to get a lawyer to speak up for them, forced surgery on a minor would be perceived as being about as bad as forced surgeries on adults (i.e. not okay).

Again, though, I imagine that there are few real protections against forced surgeries. Mainly because kids have no access to legal assistance and have little ability to resist parental pressure. I'm guessing that some minors have ALREADY been forced or otherwise coerced into geting abortions by their parents.

However a pregnancy is in my mind ALSO an invasion, so ANY parental intervention would be really, really bad. This is why I think parental notification laws should be struck down. Not to mention the fact that I do NOT trust parents to make certain kinds of decisions for their kids. I have no clue why there's this assumption that parents can be trusted to act in their children's best interest.

As for if the child is a ward of the state, I think this just happened in Florida, a year or so ago. I don't remember if the state successfully stopped the minor from getting the abortion.