I thought some of the readers here at After Abortion would be interested in this post from my own blog Abortion in Washington.
It concerns a 15-year old girl who was taken out of school for an abortion behind her mother's back. Our story concerns the fact that a local charitable organization, founded by a parishioner at a local Catholic church, brokered the transportation. All the authorities who had direct knowledge of the abortion appeared to have helped facilitate the abortion and the keeping of it secret from the mother. The state paid for the abortion and, we believe, the transportation thru Medicaid. The mantra from the media and supporters of the teen health clinic is, "No laws were broken" and "It's the mother's fault for signing a permission slip to use the clinic."
I believe this is not an unusual case here in Washington state as many high schools and middle schools have health clinics staffed by people who most likely see abortion as "an essential part of women's health care." I hope I am not being unfair to paint with such a broad brush, but it is surely the case that any employee of these clinics would need to be alright with Washington state law supporting a "woman's right to choose abortion", all the laws preventing parental involvement, and be willing to coordinate the details to facilitate an abortion: selection of the abortion clinic, appointment making, counseling, transportation, falsification of attendance records, etc. They would also need to feel comfortable with the state's sex-education curriculum, which is as radical as it comes.
I'd be interested in hearing stories from women who chose abortion thru their school health clinic or some other public health setting. If you got good care and help to support your baby, I'd like to hear those stories too.
[REPOSTED FOR MARY E. BY ANNIE, SINCE WE CAN'T GET THE NEW COMMENTING SYSTEM TO DELETE THE SEVERAL THOUSAND SPAM COMMENTS LEFT IN THE OLD COMBOX. IDIOT SOFTWARE COMPANY...]
Labels: Parental Involvement, Teen Clinics