California's Proposition 4
Man, California's Proposition 4 (on which I will not vote since I live in NJ), is a really thorny issue for me. The proposition will require parents to be notified if their daughter tries to get an abortion.
See, I'm pro-choice and I think that the most valid time to have an abortion is as a teenager. I think that people out of college have fewer valid reasons to get abortions (though certainly some exist). Teenagers are young and can be excused for not being careful, and even if they are careful and it happens anyway, you can easily argue that them having a baby would derail most of the potential their life had and would probably greatly harm the baby's life.
The flip side is that I believe one of the most basic freedoms in America is the right to raise your children how you please. There are many valid restrictions on this, but the morals you impose on your children is probably the single biggest effect you'll have on the planet. And being pro-choice, that means you can choose whether or not to teach your kids to be anti-abortion. I dislike the idea of the state protecting children's privacy from their parents except in circumstances where there's something wrong with the parent. Once a child is 18, they're an adult, and everything they do is their own, but until then, they have a legal guardian. I think that a parent should know about their children getting an abortion. Ideally, they would sit the child down, talk about responsibility, the mistakes that were made and give the child good advice, allowing the child to make the final decision (although everybody knows that when you're 16, you're parents good advice on major issues is pretty much a command).
But the situation is rarely ideal. A strongly pro-life household may well demand that the children have the baby get married and raise it. This is basically shutting down most of the avenues of their entire future. My mom dropped out of college to get married and have a baby and yes, she did lead a happy life, but that was her decision. And she also took 18 years to get her college degree after that. Most of her dreams were put on hold for almost two decades. If she had been forced to do that, I don't think she would have been so happy.
Also, parents may be abusive. Parents may punish their children. Do these laws apply to the boy as well? Girls may be less likely to get an abortion if they're worried about punishment. They'd probably react as most immature people do, by doing nothing and hoping it goes away by itself (it kind of does after 9 months!). What if the child has been molested by her father? There are many complications.
The courts could provide dispensations. There could be private deliberations to make exceptions in many extreme cases. Except time is important. You should be having an abortion within the first three months. If you don't realize you're pregnant for a month and a half (not unusual), that does not leave a lot of time for navigating the legal paths to get a dispensation.
In the end, I support the idea behind this proposition. A parent has control over their child except in extreme circumstances. Unfortunately an abortion may touch on a whole slew of extreme circumstances and it's just too hard to protect against them. So I do not support the proposition.
See, I'm pro-choice and I think that the most valid time to have an abortion is as a teenager. I think that people out of college have fewer valid reasons to get abortions (though certainly some exist). Teenagers are young and can be excused for not being careful, and even if they are careful and it happens anyway, you can easily argue that them having a baby would derail most of the potential their life had and would probably greatly harm the baby's life.
The flip side is that I believe one of the most basic freedoms in America is the right to raise your children how you please. There are many valid restrictions on this, but the morals you impose on your children is probably the single biggest effect you'll have on the planet. And being pro-choice, that means you can choose whether or not to teach your kids to be anti-abortion. I dislike the idea of the state protecting children's privacy from their parents except in circumstances where there's something wrong with the parent. Once a child is 18, they're an adult, and everything they do is their own, but until then, they have a legal guardian. I think that a parent should know about their children getting an abortion. Ideally, they would sit the child down, talk about responsibility, the mistakes that were made and give the child good advice, allowing the child to make the final decision (although everybody knows that when you're 16, you're parents good advice on major issues is pretty much a command).
But the situation is rarely ideal. A strongly pro-life household may well demand that the children have the baby get married and raise it. This is basically shutting down most of the avenues of their entire future. My mom dropped out of college to get married and have a baby and yes, she did lead a happy life, but that was her decision. And she also took 18 years to get her college degree after that. Most of her dreams were put on hold for almost two decades. If she had been forced to do that, I don't think she would have been so happy.
Also, parents may be abusive. Parents may punish their children. Do these laws apply to the boy as well? Girls may be less likely to get an abortion if they're worried about punishment. They'd probably react as most immature people do, by doing nothing and hoping it goes away by itself (it kind of does after 9 months!). What if the child has been molested by her father? There are many complications.
The courts could provide dispensations. There could be private deliberations to make exceptions in many extreme cases. Except time is important. You should be having an abortion within the first three months. If you don't realize you're pregnant for a month and a half (not unusual), that does not leave a lot of time for navigating the legal paths to get a dispensation.
In the end, I support the idea behind this proposition. A parent has control over their child except in extreme circumstances. Unfortunately an abortion may touch on a whole slew of extreme circumstances and it's just too hard to protect against them. So I do not support the proposition.