Official Participant in the Youth Media Blog-a-Thon

Currently in California girls 12 and older are allowed to receive abortions without having to tell a parent, teacher, family, or anyone. Prop 4 wants to change that. Prop 4 would amend the state Constitution requiring physicians to notify parent or legal guardians if a pregnant, unemancipated minor requests an abortion. Parents must be notified in writing at least 48 hours before the abortion is performed.

Supporters say Prop. 4 will keep teenagers safe by ensuring that a family member would know about the teen’s medical situation and be informed of risks to her health and safety, and uses the argument that more than 30 states already have similar parental notification laws as ammunition. Advocates of Prop 4 really think these laws reduce teen pregnancies and protect even teens who suffer from incest or parental abuse because other family members can be notified with the help of a court order, but is that realistic?

Some parent’s stress that it’s important that they should be involved in helping their daughters make such life altering decisions, but not every family is like that. In the real world not every family will openly help their kids in such a situation. Opponents state that parents rightfully want to be involved in their teenagers’ lives, but government can’t force good family communication. Not all teens live in homes where they can safely turn to their parents for help. It would put teens at risk, because desperate, scared teenagers may seek dangerous illegal abortions or delay or avoid care, rather than telling parents, reporting parental abuse or going to court.

Personally I think Prop 4 is just another conservative/religious ploy altogether. Where I come from not every girl has a supportive family that will help through something like pregnancy. I know some girls who had been kicked out of their homes because getting pregnant was the last straw with their parents. Luckily most of them had other family members to go to, but some girls don’t have that. Sadly, some girls have nowhere to go, they have to drop out of school, and sometimes turn to the streets because they’re too scared and confused to try and go to a shelter or find other kinds of help. But what really annoys me is that usually most people I talk to about this issue believe that the whole ‘getting kicked out’ scenario only happens to teen girls in low-income families. Saying that only poor pregnant girls get kicked out of the homes is like saying that only people who go to college can be successful. Although those two things tend to be the case it isn’t always. Don’t just associate a certain situation to certain type of person because that same situation could just as well happen to anyone even you.
—Dominic Ortiz