PAPA DON'T PREACH...I'M KEEPIN' MY BABY. Ooh Ooh!

Aside from Kelly Osbourne's tragic remake of "Papa Don't Preach," the question of informing your parents of your decision to keep or abort a child is probably not as easy as singing it to your parents with funky hair and teenage angst.  But, a lot of people like to argue about whether or not parents of teenagers (under the age of 18 years old) should be required to inform their parents if they choose to get an abortion.  This can cause a lot of controversy.  Let's take a look at this poll's results I found from "Polling the Nation: Abortion: Parental Consent" which asked respondents in California in March of 2010 the question:  

Would you favor or oppose a state law requiring parental notification by the physician before a woman under age 18 can get an abortion? 

The results indicated the following:

Favor                                 68%

Oppose                               29%

Don't Know                          3%

What is interesting is a few notes about the actual poll design itself.  The sample size was 2,002 people which were contacted by land line phone and cell phone.  We all pretty much know that teenagers do not usually own land line phones, but this alone would leave me to the assumption that it is not the teenagers under the age of 18 answering the phones when the interviewers call to ask questions.  It seems more likely that the parent of the house would be the respondents in this poll.  HOWEVER,  I am assuming here that the interviewers targeted houses with teenagers and parents living inside them.  Even if they didn't do this, it would seem likely because we know that usually older people (older than college age students) have land lines (they could potentially be parents themselves), which may be why so many favor knowing that their child is having an abortion.  But, keep in mind that the poll does say that cell phones were used as well, so this changes a lot of my assumptions.  We still don't know how many voters were from land line calls and how many were from cell phones.

Another interesting component of this poll is that the pollsters included an answer category of "don't know".  This relates to what we talked about in class.  While it seems hard to figure that people don't know what abortion is or any issues relating to it, due to its saliency, this option creates a safeguard to the poll's potential to contain nonattitudes. 

Now let's analyze.  By more of the population in this poll favoring a state law that requires doctors to inform parents of their teenage daughters' abortion implicates something that is camouflaged.  By making this state law, society is laying a responsibility onto doctors to inform the parents.  What if the doctor forgets before the date of the operation?  Could he or she be sued by the child's parents?  Does a doctor have to inform the parents if the child asked for Plan B--another "type" of Abortion (which I will get into at a later time)? 

I think one factor that may encourage a doctor to inform the parents regardless of if this was put into law or not is the level of maturity the child exhibits to the doctor.  If a 12 year old girl with pig tails and a lollipop walks into the doctor's office and demands an abortion--I think the doctor would want to tell the parents what the child is asking for (And potentially ask "Where are your parenting skills?").  But, in the case of a 17 year old, who is only 1 year away from being at the legal age of "maturity" (in the eyes of the law), may be very mature and researched her options and decided that abortion was the best one.  It's a tough call because doctors can't make exceptions or even create your own implications to the law (if it were passed).

Overall, visiting your primary practitioner when you are growing up is always awkward because of all the changes that your body goes through as you mature.  I can't imagine the response the doctor would receive on the other line when he tells the parents that their 12 year old is pregnant and wants an abortion.  In the utmost optimism, parents should have a general concern for what happens to their children and they should have their best interests at heart.  An abortion is a major decision and a surgery that I believe a child shouldn't undergo alone or without the consent of the parents (as long as the child is legally a "dependent" of the parents).  From my experience with surgeries from sport injuries, you always have to have an emergency contact written down in case things go wrong.  I wonder how that works if a child doesn't want their parents to know. 

Ultimately, Papa is going to preach regardless when he is informed by a doctor, or told by his own child.   

SIDE NOTE:  I really don't want to talk about the HIPAA Act much because a large portion of its details follow adults and not children.  There are some specifications, but for the most part they are irrelevant. 

Kelly Osbourne's Baby

Source:  http://thegirlfromtheghetto.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/baby1.jpg?w=450&h=347