I don't think we can have a conversation about teenagers, abortion, and parental consent without talking about responsible sex education.
No one, on either side, thinks abortion is a great thing. No one wakes up and says "I think I'll have an abortion today." It's a painful, often desperate decision, which women have to make. I realize other people may be involved, but ultimately, a woman is going to have to choose, and deal with the consequences of either birth or abortion. What it seems that both sides should be in agreement on is the aim of reducing the number of abortions.
Here's the part that I honestly, truly, and not for rhetorical purposes, do not understand. If you want to reduce the number of abortions, why would you also want to limit the availability of contraception, and the information about how to use them?
The Republican party, as a whole, pushes for abstinence-only education in schools, and limiting teen's access to contraceptives (dear Republicans--this is not an "attack." I can't attack you if I'm speaking the truth). They do this in spite of reports from every credible medical organization showing that these programs fail, and the fact that most Americans want comprehensive sex education for their children. (AMA report <a href="http://search.ama-assn.org/Search/cs.html?charset=iso-8859-1&url=http%3A//www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/471/409.doc&qt=abstinence+education&col=&n=5&la=en">here</a>. 2001 Surgeon General report on sex education <a href="http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/sexualhealth/call.htm">here.</a>
Abstinence-only education only talks about contraception in terms of failure rates, and often gives inflated and inaccurate accounts of those failure rates, in an attempt to scare teens from having sex. In addition, they often speak of STDs, including HIV, as a consequence of any sex outside marriage (I won't even start on their policies regarding sexual orientations that are banned from marriage in most states). Often, the consequence of these tactics is increased unsafe sexual behavior. If teens believe that methods of birth control are not effective, they are not going to use them.
I would argue that you can't have it both ways. You can't argue to reduce the number of abortions and also limit access to contraception. Abstinence only education does not, and will not, work. Nearly half of all teens and young adults are sexually active (<a href="http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/upload/3040_04.pdf">Kaiser report, September 2008).</a>
I had comprehensive sex education in my school system back in the early 1990s, with the first class in eighth grade. Abstinence was taught as one of the methods of protecting oneself from pregnancy, STDs, and HIV. We were encouraged to talk to our parents about their values, and decide on our own values about sexuality, abortion, and many other things. I had a steady boyfriend at 15, and I chose to not have sex with him, because I knew that I wasn't ready, and because I didn't want an unintended pregnancy to affect my future. You know what else I did? I made sure I knew about methods of birth control, in case I decided to change my mind. When my friends started to consider having sex, I drove them to Planned Parenthood. I drove my brother's high school girlfriend to Planned Parenthood, and I made him come with us, because men should be as responsible as women for birth control. I have, since, talked with seven of my nieces and nephews (the eighth is only seven years old, but we'll have that talk one day too), making sure they were protecting themselves when they chose to have sex. Teen sexuality isn't going to go away, and it's irresponsible to pretend otherwise. It's also irresponsible to hamper them in their decision-making process, feed them misinformation, and then tell them they have to live with the results of their actions, which we have not prepared them for. You can't have it both ways.
