To choose or not to choose?

Usually I let my pal Stacy handle abortion chores, but a letter to the editor in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune caught my attention:

The parents of a 17-year-old are suing Planned Parenthood for performing an abortion on her without informing them, and a judge has found that the organization violated Minnesota's parental notification law (Oct. 13).

If a girl is old enough to become pregnant, then she is old enough to make up her own mind. The Legislature should be ashamed for passing such a cruel law, which puts such a heavy burden on a young person who is already in a desperate situation.

This contention was particularly interesting to me: If a girl is old enough to become pregnant, then she is old enough to make up her own mind.

Even a casual observer notices that girls are maturing much sooner these days. Girls as young as 10 or 11 years of age are exhibiting signs of puberty, and are therefore in the letter-writer’s words “old enough to become pregnant.”

Does physical maturity automatically equate to the mental and emotional capacity to make such a life-changing (some would say life-ending) decision? As the writer correctly states, an unplanned pregnancy at a young age would certainly be a heavy burden. However, would the burden be eased by making a weighty decision without the consent of adults (presumably) involved in the child’s life?

I realize it’s a different world now and that laws are passed to protect the minority. For instance, pro-choicers invariably hide behind the rape, incest, and life of the mother justifications for the 1.5 million abortions that occur in our nation annually, without every providing statistics on the percentage that actually occur due to those reasons. I realize also we are to assume that all parents are ogres ready to throttle a young lady who finds herself pregnant out of wedlock.

My question is, why can’t we just once assume that the parents would step up to the plate and provide support when it is most needed? I’m not even suggesting (much to the chagrin of many of my pro-life comrades) that the decision will or must ultimately be life. It simply seems unfathomable to me that anyone, regardless of their near-rabid support of “choice,” would suggest that simply because a girl possesses the physical capacity to become pregnant, she must therefore have the maturity to make a life or death decision on her own.

Women’s rights indeed. On one hand we’re to assume that women are strong, able to handle anything. On the other hand, we don’t trust the mothers of pregnant teenagers to lend support in a time of crisis.

I hope women’s rights advocates stumbling upon my blog realize that those who presume to speak for your movement do your cause irreparable harm each time they speak.