I've heard it argued within the debates of several heated issues in the United States that it is unethical not to have a consistent law throughout the land. For instance, it's been said that capital punishment ought not to be legal in some states but illegal in others, for this inconsistency equates to a varying value on human life between different regions in the same country. Can not the same consistency be expected with the issue of abortion? Granted, the institution has been legalized within all fifty states. The availability of the practice, however, varies from state to state. Women under the age of eighteen have greater or less legal rights to have an abortion depending on the state in which they live. I'm not yet sure of my personal opinion on the ethics of such inconsistency. So follow along with me as I examine the facts.
State permission requirements for girls under the age of eighteen range from needing two parent's consent before an abortion is legal to needing none at all. Some have a length of time requirement between getting consent and having the procedure take place. Some regions require only one parent while others require a counselors consent in the instance that parental consent is not available. All state's that require consent have loopholes, known as judicial bypasses, in which girls may get permission from the courts after proving they have substantial reason for making the decision without consent. Still some states hold relaxed parental involvement laws in which parents do not need to give permission but simply must be informed of their child's decision.
As you might have guessed, the states are rather divided on this issue. There is a pretty consistent tendency for the most liberal states in the nation to have no consent requirements and for the most conservative to have the strictest.
So what does this mean for the debate as a whole? It can mean as little or as much as you want it to. It can be seen as an unethical inconsistency in standards or as proof of small steps in the right direction. Whatever your opinion, it is surely proof of the division between the nation on the issue of teenage abortion, and even more importantly, abortion overall. It is surely proof of this issue affecting personally, the lives of women across the age gap differently.
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4 comments:
How interesting, I didn't realize that there were such inconsistencies between the states on this issue. I knew that some states might have more liberal views overall, but this is more than I expected. Issues like this are very controversial and seem to be split across the country, as is evidenced by the difference in laws. The best thing, it seems to me, would be to have a federal standard on this issue. But it seems unlikely that any one set guideline would actually make everyone happy (or at least make enough people happy to pass it in the government). Very interesting viewpoint, good post.
What do you think about the idea of the necessity of consistency across the board? I think that it is necessary because without it, people are able to leave their home state to go to more liberal states that don't have as strict guidelines. Do you think that the federal should step in and make definitive rules regarding abortion?
You couldn't be more right in pointing out the difficulty that will inevitably arise in trying to pass a standardized law. The closest thing to making everyone happy seems to be legalization.Legalization allows women the right to abortion without condoning it. The issue of teenage abortion might never be consistent because, in the issue, lies the question of whether teenagers have the ability to make such life altering decisions by themeselves.
Like you said Ashton, girls can and often do cross state borders to find abortion rights. Whether this is a good thing or not probably depends on whether or not you support a women's right to have personal choice in terms of an abortion. Pro-lifers might see this inconsistancy among states as a snag in the enforcement of national laws. I think consistency would be better. Inconsistency of the laws just influences more girls to have later term abortions than they might would normally. They have difficulty being able to have an abortion in their own state, so they wait until they can travel to another one. I, personally, don't agree with the idea of teenage girls having abortions without parental consent, but I think I would rather have inconsistency in this issue above all else.
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