Underaged abortion advised and made without parents knowing

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No. A single father is a father raising his children without the mother.

The issue here is not whether or not abortion is legal, but whether or not it should be possible for a minor to get an abortion without the consent of her parents.

In the United States at least, this is entirely legal. Granted, that does not make this ethical. The story, if true, sounds as though the school forced the girl to get an abortion or made the decision for her. That is certainly inappropriate given the circumstances.

The school should not, however, be forced to tell the mother (ie, Grandmother) that her daughter is pregnant. There's an old concept of doctor-patient confidentiality. It applies in this case as well.

That is hearsay. The mother may only be saying that for the reason of giving her story more support. She may have been disappointed enough to toss the girl on the street. That's the point that many of the others seem to be making: A legal case cannot be made out of hearsay evidence.

Should the school have told the mother without asking the girl first if it was all right? No, but the girl should have had enough faith in her mother to have told her herself. The fact that she did not speaks loads about the quality of her family life, does it not?

While I do agree with you that the girl's mother should have known, I disagree with you that the grandmother-to-be should be able to control whether her daughter has the baby or not.

 

All of which begs an interesting question. Speaking legally, if the pregnancy had been allowed to continue who would be the legal guardian of this child? The grandmother? Would she be responsible for it until it reaches adulthood or would she only have to 'fill in' as it were, until her daughter reaches an age when she's not a minor any more (18 presumably). Or would it have to be ruled upon by the court?

 

The legal guardian is the parent, and if the parent has a legal guardian, the parent's legal guardian is the legal guardian of the child until the parent reaches legal age and can take over the duties.

But it depends on the court to lay down the rules if the parents aren't married or living together and given the parents are underaged, they're neither married, nor (probably) living together in one household, so you bet it'll und up in the court, anyway. However, it's impossible for someone not of legal age to be a legal guardian. Unless somewhere in the world there are some very non-standard laws that allow that.

 

Trying to stay a bit on the outside of this until I have formed my own opinion, I did notice something that has bothered me. While reading everyones threads, a few people have bashed the mother for not knowing/noticing that her daughter was pregnant.

I don't believe that the article said how far along the girl was. I am no obstetrician, but if the girl was only a few weeks or even a month along, is it possible to notice?

Now if the girl was well into her first or second trimeseter, then the mother can be blamed for no noticing.

Sorry, but I had to point that out.

 

To briefly address some of the points made here:

Legally:

The healthcare workers and doctors can under no circumstances other than suspected rape or suchlike inform the parents or anyone else for that matter. Confidentiallity is assured.

This actually goes for any medical procedure in the UK. As long as you're in a position to understand the consequences of the medical procedure and the consequences of *not* having something done, you are legally in a position to make the decission to have it done or not, regardless of age.

As far as teachers go:

The BBC article is not really clear enough on many points to be certain about the exact turn of events other than the fact that the girl was pregnant, she told someone at the school in confidence, and the advice received was to have an abortion. She had that abortion without her parents knowledge and consent.

Clearly the girl did not feel she could speak with her mum about the issue, though of course ideally she should have. However, to put the blame for that on the school is plain daft.

As an addendum to this, please bear in mind that the girl's mother consented to her daughter being named and photgraphed in newspapers in order to further her own cause. Now take a moment to consider how utterly irresponsible in terms of her daughter's already difficult situation that was and ask yourself if she should have been the one to make the decission for her daughter in the first place?

@Chev - You'll be waiting a long time......

 

@Jaguar: good point.

@Viking:

If it's daft to blame someone for flat out lie, I'm daft.

Damn, I would never have supposed something like that could be part of the law of a civilised country. That's a shocker. How can an irresponsible kid who gets pregnant before 16 be responsible enough to "understand the situation", let alone decide someone's life or death?

It also means that in the legal sense the school is to blame for some unprecised disinformation and pressuring the kid to have abortion. No prison

Quite contrary, she made it a point to combat the situation and demand a change of the law.

 

To blame the school for the abortion is daft. To blame the school for not telling the girl's mother is daft. The lie about the girl being in or out of school premises is, if it happened and there is no real evidence here, completely besides the point.

You have absolutely no evidence of disinformation or pressure at all. None at all.

No prison, sure, no prison.

She is of course perfectly within her rights to attempt to get a change in the law, though she will not get it. However, that does not make it responsible to name and allow pictures of her daughter to be used in the media. Ultimately it was her daughter's decission to have an abortion. I really don't think she needs everyone else to know about it in detail including who she is.

 

It is besides the point because it's inconvenient for your position.

Keeping the mother away while pressuring the girl to have an abortion and keep it in secret from her mother is actually the key point here, it being enough to take a single look at the thread's subject to attest.

The mother said this and the school didn't deny.

It was not her decision, she was pressured by the school.

 

Actually, no, it was her decission. Legally and any other way you care to look at it:

She would have to had to make representations to two doctors as to the reasons for having an abortion in order to have it approved. This would neither have been done by the school nor at the school.

That is the legal position - two doctors must approve the abortion. Given her age, she would certainly also have been given some guidance by healthworkers such as a practice nurse or similar.

You're missing the point about what the school told the girl's mother: Since the girl spoke with a school health worker, they *could not* legally tell the girls mother. It is clear in law - please refer to the House of Lords ruling above.

Edited to add this:

Link to full article containing the above.

It was her decission.

[ June 03, 2004, 00:44: Message edited by: Viking ]