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The graphic at left (amazingly provided by NARAL Pro-Choice America) shows to what level of consent a woman must have before an abortion can take place. This is a key graphic in the current bills that were passed in both House and Senate and in their reconciliation.
You see, there are multiple states that border each other where the burden of consent is less that the other. For some people that want to keep the parents out of the equation about whether an abortion should be done, it seems pretty simple to get across a border, have the procedure and return.
Parents should be involved in this decision, but I’m not convinced that this alone would reduce the number of abortions. That is probably one of the reasons that this passed, for it is not purely an abortion bill– it’s more about states and parents rights.
What we’ve seen over the past years is an erosion of parental authority in a child’s life. I can remember as a child being told (whether fact or not, I would have to research to be sure) how in Soviet Russia the government basically owned the children and you could have your children taken away if you spanked them or if you tried to teach them the Christian religion. It was part of us explaining why they were wrong.
In America, however, it is quickly turning that way. Parents can have their children taken away because of what the state deems poor education. Parents can be taken to court over whether or not a child will have a specific medication. And the Senate Democrats were interested in making it easier for a woman to have an abortion without the parent even knowing there was a pregnancy.
Now, granted, the woman’s parents may encourage her that way as well. I believe that abortion is murder, so I think it’s the wrong counsel– but at least the counsel was there. The parents may also encourage the woman to give the child up for adoption or look into some other method where the child can still live.
The family was the unit set up by God to exist for the purpose of training the next generation– not the government. The family was supposed to educate the children. The family was supposed to care for and support them, and they in return. What has happened is that as the government has continued to encroach on areas of our life that other institutions (family, church, etc.) were responsible for, we’ve let them, and we have given up the best tools and our freedoms in the process.
