Saturday, July 09, 2005

'Reasonable Restrictions' on Abortion

'Reasonable Restrictions' on Abortion

[W]e all want young women to tell their parents if they are pregnant; and we also all want parents to say to their children, "honey, I love you and you can tell me anything, and I will help you." But, I would add, we can't legislate good parenting, so trying to legislate being-a-good-daughter is not only unfair and unrealistic, it also places a higher expectation on children than it does on parents--which runs directly counter to the way things should be, to the way good parenting works.


I'm staring my 35th birthday in the eye, so if I found myself in need of an abortion today, I don't need mom's permission.

The issue of abortion is one that affects all women, but these kinds of restrictions re: parental notification aren't about women my age, they're about women in a much more vulnerable position of physical, financial, and emotional dependency.

Basically, the reason I'm pro-choice is because I don't want my government sticking its big fat nose into a situation between a daughter and parents simply because it assumes that it knows best. We talking about a government that can't even balance its own checkbook, for Pete's sake.

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