'Rent Control
Dante Alighieri
Consent. If you're a kid, you need it; if you're a parent, you have the right to withhold it and (no pun intended) screw your kid over. Just about every country in the world has an "Age of Consent," the age at which a person obtains the legal right to have sex with another person who's at least that age or older. In some nations, it's as low as 13. In others, it's as high as 21. Here, it varies from state to state, fluctuating between 16 and 18 - 18 in California. Many think that the Age of Consent only applies to people of different age groups. In other words, it's okay for two 15 year olds to have sex, but not a 15 year old and a 19 year old. WRONG. Technically, it is illegal for anyone to have sex with anybody before the legal age of consent.
Congratulations! Everybody out there who has participated in the act of "getting it on" before the age of 18 has officially broken the law. Have a cookie. Actually, before you have that cookie, take a moment to swallow some of this food for thought.
Abortion is one of the most controversial words of our time. However, rather than debate the rights and wrongs, pros and cons, lefts and rights, let's set the root of the issue aside and take a moment to ponder this: if abortion is legal (which it currently is) and if young women are getting pregnant as minors (which they are), should said women have to reveal this fact to their parents in order to get an abortion? In 32 out of 50 states plus Washington, D.C., the answer is "Yes." 17 of those 32 states have parental consent laws currently in effect; the other 15 require parental notification.
What does this mean? Consent and notification are exactly what their names suggest. Parental consent requires at least one parent, and sometimes two, to submit signed permission in order for their daughter to get an abortion. Parental notification merely requires that the parents be notified of their daughter's actions. California is one of the few states which currently has no parental consent or notification laws in place...yet. Abortion is such a controversial topic that laws regarding it change quickly and frequently.
The larger question, though, is why exactly we, the under-18 crowd, are subject to these extra rules governing our bodies. In some ways, one can see where the law-makers are coming from, but, like so many things, the laws themselves are good ideas gone bad. The logic regarding parents and abortion is easy enough to follow: a girl gets pregnant and wants an abortion; the whole experience is very emotional, and she is under a lot of stress. She should, therefore, get help and support from a trusted adult before making any decisions about something so serious. Ideally, that person would be one or both of her parents. Of course, ideally anybody who wanted to have sex without getting pregnant would've been extremely careful and conscious of their decision and used contraceptives, and it wouldn't be an issue.
The world is not an ideal place. The majority of young women who get pregnant in their teen years are quite loathe to tell Mommy and Daddy, and most of them will go to great lengths to ensure that Mommy and Daddy never find out. Especially if Daddy is the one who put her there in the first place. Many states that have implemented parental laws regarding abortion have since reported that they made no discernible difference in the number of legal abortions performed. Others have said the amount dropped by as much as 25%. Where all these people are going can only be guessed, but it's not unreasonable to conjecture that a good chunk of women decide to carry their children to term and another good chunk seek more illegal and dangerous alternatives. A teenage girl is 23 times more likely to die during childbirth than during a legal abortion.
Eighteen. It's a magical number. Evidently, when your eighteenth birthday rolls around, a little fairy appears and instantly imparts to you all the knowledge, responsibility, and maturity a well-adjusted young adult should have. It seems that the laws on the books are out of place - not necessarily out-dated, but written for all the wrong reasons. Lawmakers assume that they can legislate morality. Of course, there's not much we can do about these laws until the magical age of 18, because that's when one is given the awesome power of the vote. Alas, such a double-edged sword. Until that day, take this one bit of advice: Know.