California voters will have an opportunity to decide whether teenage girls should have stronger legal protections for their physical and emotional health. Supporting Proposition 4 on the November ballot can keep parents as a guiding force in a turbulent world. (Story continued below.)
Discussion Starters:
1.) What do your students think: Should parents be informed before their teenager decides to terminate a pregnancy? What is your opinion; does it differ from your students’?
2.) What should be done, if anything, on the front end so teenagers aren’t facing such decisions?
3.) What does the Bible advise us to do about creating life? Under hhat conditions is it biblically appropriate to plan families?
Proposition 4 seeks to provide commonsense parental notification prior to the termination of a minor’s pregnancy. The reason for this measure is clear: The well-being of young teens is at stake with negative influences from pop culture, adult advertising and the Internet. Teenage pregnancy is a public health issue that will not disappear; federal data indicate minors are sexually active on a wide scale. According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 47 percent of teenage girls age 15 to 17 have had sex with one or more partners. Despite nearly 90 percent of high school students reporting receiving sexual education instruction, less than two-thirds of teenagers acknowledged using birth control in a 2007 CDC survey.
If a teenage girl does get pregnant in California today, parents are left in the dark if she chooses to have an abortion. This puts young girls at greater risk. The question then for our society is to determine what the proper role of parents should be when a young girl must decide whether to have a surgical procedure to terminate her pregnancy.
