Research Paper on Parental Consent for Abortion

Submitted By magan16
Words: 1733
Pages: 7

Last Name 1
Name
Teacher
Class
Date
Parental Consent for Teenage Abortion
THESIS: For the most part, parental consent for teenage abortion should be necessary except under certain circumstances.
I.

Parental Laws for Abortion
A.

B.

II.

1.

Consent

2.

Notification

3.

Enforcement

States without laws
1.

How many

2.

Reason why

Statistics
A.

B.

III.

States with laws

Teenage Abortion
1.

Abortion rates

2.

Regret rate

Parental Laws
1.

States that follow

2.

Parents who are notified

Benefits

Last Name 2

IV.

X.

A.

Pregnancy rates

B.

Abortion rates

C.

General benefits

Certain Circumstances
A.

Harmful

B.

Raped

Refutation
A.

Story from parents

B.

Story from teen

Last Name 3
Parental Consent for Teenage Abortion
Everyone has been in a tough situation and know that decision making is hard. When people are young, they make lots of mistakes because they are sometimes put in difficult situations and make the supposedly right choice when in actuality it is the wrong choice. Sue was fifteen when she found out she was pregnant. She did not want to have a baby at her age, so she was thinking about abortion. Sue knew she would have to inform her parents before having it done, but she did not want to. She decided she was going to have an illegal abortion so no one would have to find out she was pregnant. A few days after her abortion, Sue became extremely sick and went to the hospital. Apparently the clinic she went to had dirty utensils and caused her to obtain a serious infection. Would she have obtained the infection if she had told her parents and had a legal abortion? More than likely she would have been fine. According to statistics along with benefits, parental consent for teenage abortion should be necessary except under certain circumstances.
In 1973 in the court case Roe vs. Wade, the issue was rights for an abortion. The case made the decision that under the 14th amendment, women have the right to privacy and to decide whether or not to have an abortion. The issue now is whether parents need to be involved in their teenager’s abortion. Most states have parental laws, but only twenty­four states have parental consent laws. There are thirteen states that have no parental involvement laws at all. The remaining states just have notification laws. In seven states the parental laws are not enforced.
Abortion has been a progressing issue ever since 1973.
Statistically speaking, teenage abortion rates are not as high as people think. Even though they are not very high, it is becoming more of an issue. Pregnancy and abortion rates of teenagers are steadily getting higher. Approximately “1.60 abortions occur annually per 100

Last Name 4 women aged 15­17” (Altman­Palm 4), which corresponds to about thirty­two percent. Within the thirty­two percent that actually receive an abortion, “[they] most commonly felt at least a little bit of sadness, regret or guilt (62­74%)” (Rocca 5). About “18% had mixed emotions” (Rocca 6) after receiving an abortion. Teenage women do not need to feel so many emotions and try to decide what to do when they have an unplanned pregnancy. Teenagers need guidance in situations such as this. The women are not the only ones who are impacted emotionally though.
The father to be also is emotional. “Just being told you’re going to be a father produces anxiety”
(Gottfried 1) but on the outside the males act like everything is fine. The male does not get any say so in the abortion of his child, which can emotionally impact that male’s life. The teens may try to act like they have the situation under control, but neither the male or female is “prepared to deal with the news” (Gottfried 1) they are going to have a child. Neither the male or female is prepared to decide what to do with the infant.
Even though most states have parental consent laws for abortion, some