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New abortion rules
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Anti-abortion campaigners have condemned new guidelines which confirm doctors can help girls under 16 to have an abortion without involving parents.
Here
What do you think? I can't make up my mind.
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Comments
Mind, I think anti-abortion campaigners should be aborted.
i agree.
i don't see how abortion is any different to any other medical procedure. confidentiality is confidentiality.
in fact i think it's vital for some girls to know they have a place to go to get help that's totally confidential. i think forcing underage girls to involve parents could have tragic consequences.
Forcing anybody into the underground is dangerous.
The thing is, anti-abortion campaigners would quite happily see girls be forced back to the backstreet places, where the height of medical science would be a bent coathanger. Just like it was in the 1960s.
I also say that if men got pregnant abortion would be a great gift from God :yeees:
Yeah but many parents wouldnt do that in reality. What we say and what we do are two totally different things.
Im unsure on this one. you see after an abortion it can be a stressful time, people think because you have had an abortion you are a heartless cow, but in reality its quite the opposite so some girls could be quite distressed after having it.
I dunno
I do think it's so important that they're still given all the options and all the support they need, as I think a lot may think that now they have this option (and the option to do it secretly) it's the only (and always the best) thing to do.
As BeckyBoo said, a lot of parents wouldn't react as badly as they or their child claim they would, before actually experiencing it. Therefore they should maybe be encouraged to tell their parents, even though they legally don't have to, especially if they're very young.
I don't know
Going behind the child's back is far more damaging, really.
When I first fell pregnant at 17 yrs old i was shitting myself, I didnt dare tell my parents......it was my sister who told them. I thought they would hit the roof........they didnt.
So how many other teenagers feel this way ? we all think our parents are gonna hit the roof but they dont always do what we think.
I know some parents would lose their rag but the majority its just a pure shock and yes we would probs be annoyed when we were first told but once we got used to the idea then we wouldnt be as bad as people make out.
It's hard for good parents to see it, but a lot of parents (especially fathers) would sling a pregnant girl out on the street.
buyt were in dfferent years now..go back 10/15 years then maybe but now ? Im not so sure, parents are a lot more open minded.
I will talk whne im sober...yeah
I wish I could agree, I really do. BUt I know that it's not the case.
So im in a minority ?
Obviously our Becks is my baby but shes gonna grow and she's gonna become a young woman.....Id hope that i can accept anythin that comes my way as she grows into a young woman......long as she isnt 14/15
but even then, we would cross that bridge.......Id never disown her.....even though she may think we do.
My parents (mum especially) hit the roof when I got pregnant at 19. Even though I had my own flat, respectable job, car and partner, I was sent to coventry and basically told to stay away until my son was born, none of my other family were told. My son was born a month after my 20th birthday. I really dread to think what would have happened if I had been very young and still living at home. I think the legislation serves to protect young women with parents like mine!
No, decent parents who would be fcaring and understanding are very much in the majority. But not all parents are decent.
The advice is to protect all, especially the vulnerable whose parents WOULD disown them if they fell pregnant. IF the girl's parents are open and understanding most of the time the girl would tell. But even if the girl doesn't tell it is her choice to make.
I believe keeping something big like this from their parents at such a young age is giving them too much responsibilty. They will be pressured to having abortions now as they feel that is the easy way out in not having to tell their parents about their pregnancy.
At such a young age a child cannot go through such life-changing experience without the support of their family. I mean I cannot imagine a 14year old going for an abortion with her doctor then come back home like nothing happened. Keeping something like that to themselves would cause more damage.
I've been there thinking my mum and dad would disown me if they ever found out and when I had no choice but to tell my mum, of course she was shocked, disappointed BUT she still give me the support I needed and asked me what I wanted. It was my choice to have the abortion even though my mum assured me she would help me if I wanted to keep the baby. I have no regrets. But we can't guaranntee that for the others who are pressured to have abortions just so they don't have to tell their parents.
Nah, sure the only difference is it is a child we are talking about. Illegal to have sex if she is under 16, yet ok to have an abortion behind their parents' back. Am I the only one, seeing something wrong with this picture. It is illegal to have sex under 16 for a reason. It's bad enough they already go against that but to give them the opportunity to have an abortion without their parents' consent is a joke.
Can people not see that kids will just use this as an easy way out, so they won't be as careful to not get pregnant in the first place as they'll just think all they have to do is pop over to their docs and no worries, they'll sort it out. Trying to act all grown up when they shouldn't be given the opportunity to make rash decisions like that without have their family to guide them.
Absolutely; we need to be aware of those kind of people - but not all parents are like that. As someone has already said, due to the amount of teen pregnancies, parents are learning to except those kind of consequences.
I agree with this. I too do feel parents are having to be more understanding with their kids than ever before.
The guidelines are that a child should always be strongly encouraged to confide in family or friends, but that if she doesn't want to then it is not something that wil baulk an abortion.
Personally I feel that a child's sex life, and the issues surrounding it, are for the child alone to decide who should be told. Foricing people away from the help they need forces them into the arms of those who do not have their best interests at heart- either backstreet abortion doctors, or effectively being forced to have a child against their will.
Or failed contraception. Or...
Men who are against abortions have no right to voice their opinion.
There is many things a child shouldn't do under 16 because they are not old enough to to understand the consequences of their actions which is why they all have a legal guardian to help them face those situations together.
Can anyone honestly say they would be fine if their daughter got pregnant under 16 and arranged a termination behind their back?
I believe what they should do is still give the girl the choice in having an abortion if that is what she wishes to do, so long as her parents know - Ok, not necessarily to have their consent, just to make the parents aware of what's happeneing to their own daughter.
I agree with you there, that Makes sense to in my eyes.
everybody has a right to to voice their opinion so get down off your pearch !
Everyone is going to have an opinion on this but at the end of the day argueing about it on a forum like this is going to get you know where fast
Simple fact is these kids shouldnt be having sex in the first place to be put in a position, they got themselves in in the first place, and then have to decide, do i tell my parents or have an abortion and dont say anything, that will stay in their memory for life it wont go away, I dont think they could possibly comprehand what they are doing, and arent looking ahead either at the age. They see it as a quick fix.
And thats my opinion !
But the parents views are immaterial to those of the child. It is the child's body, and so it remains the child's decision. End of discussion.
Fact is, a lot of parents WOULD throw a pregnant daughter out on the street, and the rules have to be there to prevent that happening. And to prevent parents from interfering with the child's decision, which is what happened in the case that has forced the isue of these guidelines.
It's always ad, but when a kid is pregnant it isn't the time to be pontificating about the wrongs of the child in having sex. FYI< it was not illegal for a girl to have underage sex until very recently.
And, to be quite honest, for a lot of women it IS just a quick fix. People try and insinuate that it is a terrible gut-wrenching decision to have to make, but for a lot of people it isn't. They don't want to be pregnant, take two pills and they aren't anymore. Some girls are affected terribly by it, and some aren't, that's life.
And no, to be quite honest I don't think everybody has the right to an opinion on this. If you are male you have no right to dictate what women can do with their own bodies, it is a decision for women alone to make. I've said it before loads; if men fell pregnant abortion would be a wonderful gift from God.
I have never heard anyone capable of throwing their child out if they found out they got pregnant. If anyone can tell me other wise with proof from personal experience or from a friend you know. Please tell me.
Yes you have made it clear, 'that's life'. Kids do unfortunately still have sex under 16 but why encourage it by giving them the chance to get it terminated whenever they feel they messed up and don't feel they want their parents to know so hey just run to the docs.
I admit I haven't done any research but if for example a girl is foolish enough to get pregnant several times all being terminated... would that not cause any damage to their bodies, etc.
And as a male yourself, you shouldn't be able to to speak for most girls in saying it isn't a big deal for most/some. Do you not think?
Giving them the option of having an abortion does not "encourage" sex and does not "encourage" risky sex. Talk to kids and they have sex because a) everyone else is (i.e. peer presure) and b) there's nowt else to do. They have risky sex because "it's more interesting and exciting". Banning abortions wouldn't solve this issue, and making them tell their parents wouldn't either.
You forget, most doctors have practised these guidelines for a very long time. It is not a new issue, more a case of clarifying matters because of a recent case involving a fourteen-year-old.
There is nothing about "betraying trust" that is relevant- child does something, doesn't want ma and pa to find out, they don't. It's how it should be. It isn't the parents problem.
I refer to personal experience.
Of course it's all down to family values and trust. At a mature age, reachin 18 they have the mind and knowledge to think for themselves. Even then you'd still find an adult wanting support from family/friends. But a child who is still at school, soo niave and vulnerable, who shouldn't even be in that situation in the first place cannot expect to know what is best for them. These are kids that would rather sit at home, than go to school if they had the choice. Eat chunk food rather than a good home cooked meal if they had the choice. Stay out late and come back home when they feel like it would be a choice they would take. But they ain't given them because they are still children that still has alot of growing up to do.
Once they get a hold of this information. I do believe they will take advantage of this and realise they won't have to be as careful in not getting pregnant as we have now given them a choice to get a 'quick fix' when they need it and whole time their parents won't have to know.
Thing you have to remember about surveys about underage sex is that a) kids lie to make themselves sound better and b) "girl of 15 has safe sex with loving boyfriend" isn't a very good headline.