Reply #7: God, I wish the government would stay out of it

[ismnotwasm]

First, I wish there was always open dialog between young women and their parents so they could discuss sex, sexuality, options from abstinence to abortion without all this government sponsored stigma. That being said,
Conservatives want to ban, or control sex education in public schools. They seem to want to pretend that teenagers haven't been having sex since their have been teenagers. This limits information, and denies the reality of teenagers already having sex.

Then they want to take advantage of every opportunity to control a womans right to choose. Even something seemingly reasonable, like parental notification is just opening that back door to taking away women's rights.

I know of terrified young women who have taken certain drugs to try to induce abortion, or aborted themselves with a pencil rather than face their parents, or even go to a clinic. There are a lot of dangerous urban legends out there, that may well induce abortion, but at a very high risk to the young woman. And we've all heard the sensationalized stories of women carrying a fetus to term, and then leaving the infant in a McDonald's, or a garbage can. They then get prosecuted, often for attempted murder.

Young women who are sexually active, or who are thinking about it, need access to all the information they can get. (Including abstinence teaching- Sometimes young women need to be told "you don't have to if you don't want to", not "you shouldn't, it's wrong.") All the health care they can get. All the birth control they can get. Often they don't approach their parents until it's too late. Out of shame or fear, or whatever other emotion, is a individual thing. But these same young women need access to abortion without judgment.