Mallard FAILmore
14 years ago
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Texas Abortions
Here in Texas, legislators tend to favor laws that regulate moral decisions, such as marriage to a person of the same sex and the decision to terminate a pregnancy. These have been two very controversial issues for the 20th and 21st century, and they have yet to slow down. In Austin, there is still the occasional crazy who will throw homemade bombs at abortion centers or students who take ‘a vow of silence’ day in schools to promote gay rights. However, there have been little changes to either of these rights. Abortions are still looked down upon by our Republican government as they regulate abortions for women. Minors are now required to inform parents of their decision, which gives them the ability to basically become the decision makers for the baby. Since then, abortions have decreased for teens between 15-18 years of age by 11%. While it seems typical and traditional for parents to make decisions for their daughters, it isn’t the parents who have to carry the child to term. It isn’t legally the parents’ of the pregnant teen who have to take responsibility to care for their daughter’s child after it’s born. Therefore, while abortions of younger teens should be regulated by parents, it shouldn’t become the parents’ decision as to whether or not it is performed. It should be the bearers decision unless otherwise not mentally capable to make a responsible decision for herself. With the ability to conceive a child, we should also have the ability to make our own decisions, to better our lives and make the best decision for the child. While it is a sacrifice of a human life it would (hopefully) prevent another teen mother from going on welfare and becoming stuck in economic poverty.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Your blog had good information in it but I would have liked to see some more statistics or examples. Here are some along with my own opinions on the matter. In 2005, 85,760 women obtained abortions in Texas, regardless of moral or religious beliefs, the simple fact that 85,760 children were not born into an already overpopulated society and of those women 57% are economically disadvantaged. Socio-economically speaking not increasing the population of already impoverished people is a positive not a negative. And just as a personal note to the religious sector that say it’s a sin 78% of the women report a religious affiliation, so I guess it’s only a sin if it doesn’t happen to them.
For more information go to http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/sfaa/pdf/texas.pdf
Your point about the Texas government being very conservative when it comes to abortions and gay rights is true, but isn't it wrong to say that is a bad thing just because they are trying to uphold moral standards?
Minor teens should be required to inform their parents if they are pregnant and they should make the decision on how to handle the situation together. The parents should have at least 50% of say in the matter because most likely their minor is not ready to take on the responsibilities of a child, and the parents will be the ones having to take care of it, even if they are not “legally” required to. (Maybe if teens were required to tell their parents that they were having sex at 14, 15, and 16 years of age there would be less teen pregnancies and even less abortions.)
"With the ability to conceive a child, we should also have the ability to make our own decisions, to better our lives and make the best decision for the child." Just because you have the ability to conceive a child, doesn't mean you have the ability to know what is best for that child at 16 years old.
You had very strong opinionated points but they would be stronger if they were backed up with more statistics. Also, throw in an article or two that says the same thing you do in your blog to prove your points even more.
I can see you the point you are making, however if the teenager already made the poor decision of having unprotected sex, what makes them capable of making another life altering decision. Since they are already lacking making adult decisions I beleive that it should go to the parents to make that decision for them. Why should a baby pay for the lack of judgment thier potention parents had when they decided not to use birthcontrol. Also if abortion rates have decreased, shouldn't we be happy that people are becoming wiser and more careful with the decisions they make? The stricter abortion laws become, I strongly believe the less amount of abortions will "need" to be made.
I think that you made a lot of good point about the Texas legislator and the types of laws that they propose. Laws are supposed to be made to keep people safe and enforced to maintain order in our society. However, the laws that some of our legislators are pushing are intended to make people feel guilty about the decisions they have to make, not to keep people from getting hurt. Not only that, I believe that deciding to have an abortion is probably a very difficult thing to do and that making someone feel guilty about their chose is truly cruel.
While I agree with your point of view, I believe that the basis for your argument is emotion and when arguing in favor of something you should use logic and facts to help others understand where you’re coming from. The more facts and details you give, the more credible you become as a writer/speaker and people are more willing to listen to you. Perhaps you could have given more background information about the bill as well. Information such as, the representative who was pushing the bill or how many people voted for it to pass could have been helpful. Other than that, I think that the blog was good and provided readers with something to think about.
I think Victoria makes some very good points in her Texas Abortions blog. I also think there are too many young mothers dependent on the welfare system to help support their child. The government or parents of a young mother should not impose their views on whether a pregnant young mother should carry the child to term. It’s not them who has to carry the child or the burden that may come along with having a child as such a young age. If a young mother wants to terminate the pregnancy in efforts to better her future, it should be her decision and her decision, solely.
Parents can only do so much to protect and support their child when their child is having a child. In cases where the child is underage, I think the parents should be made aware of the decision their child has made but ultimately it is up to the child on whether or not to terminate the pregnancy. A teen pregnancy is not a temporary situation; it’s a life-long commitment. Would the government or parents prefer the teen end up on welfare because the birth of a child has prevented them from becoming a self-sufficient adult? We’re trying to get people off welfare, why would we want to intervene with anything that would prevent that?
Post a Comment