Minors Mining Through: A look at Abortion
- Julia
What rights do minors have? What can we do? Why can't we do some things?
Mostly because our brain's cognitive development hasn't finished, apparently hindering our ability to make certain decisions.
Like abortion, for example. In the US, some states say that a minor cannot have an abortion. In addition, 38 states (AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, NC, ND, OH, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, WV, WI, WY) say that one cannot be obtained without parental consent.
One side of that argument is that your body is your own and no parent needs to know what you do with it. Another point in that direction is that there are so many situations of abuse and incest and general family life. The girl could fear for her life if her parents found out. A fellow Shero (StarWoman) pointed us to a case where a woman had forced her dauther to drink bleach and sat on her until death- because she had found out about the daughter's sexual activity. Also, how could you even trust a very young girl with a child of her own? She needs to finish school, get a job, go to college. None of this will be very likely with a baby strapped to her back. The child might not have a very happy life, either. This is my personal viewpoint, but there are other opinions as well.
However, others say that parents should know what's going on in the child's life, and be able to decide if this is the right option for their child. They also need to be able to support their children through an obviously difficult point in their life. People of this viewpoint sometimes suggest that in the event of some of the above situations, a court waiver could be presented to the minor so that they could proceed with their abortion. This may save a girl's life who needs an abortion.
Another topic of intrest is the rights minors recieve in school. My school says that minors recieve a limited version of the rights put forth in the Constitution, so I'm allowed to sort of speak my mind on this. Not fully, but sort of.
Schools are trying to crack down on drug use by searching backpacks, bags, books, and other items with drug-sniffing dogs and other methods. If they fing some sort of drug residue on your bag, they will search it. Even if they don't find any drugs or dangerous items, you will sometimes be forced to take off all of your clothes to search for drugs on your person. For many teens, such a search is humiliating and scary.
The case that wrapped up 20 years ago, New Jersey vs. T.L.O., states the rules in such cases. It says that a school official can search you or your belongings without a warrant IF there is something to suspect you on, like a "hit" on your belongings. However, once your bags and books and whatnot have been fully searched, I think that a strip search does violate the terms set forth in New Jersey vs. T.L.O. In one girl's case, in fact, they found medicine for polycystic ovary syndrome in her bag-the reason she had not informed the school nurse about it was because she wanted to keep the condition private. The school, even after learning this, tried to force her to go through urine and drug testing and go into drug counseling, and suspend her. Even though it had nothing to do with illicit drugs.
There are many more topics under the catagory of minor's rights- I only hit on a few of them. However, consider your rights carefully. You may have more of them than you think.
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