Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 23, 1992 TAG: 9203230108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The teen-agers from First Baptist Church were for it; the peer counselors from Teenline were against it.
So far, entirely predictable.
What might not have been foreseeable, though, was that after two hours of back-and-forth on the issue, the 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds would leave the newspaper's conference room with a greater respect for each other's opinions.
And they would discover a fair amount of agreement on related issues.
\ "When some kids say, `my parents will kill me,' that's for real," said Mike. None of the last names of the Teenline counselors since they work anonymously. "Not all homes are as good as ours."
He spoke with strong conviction, but he wasn't convincing his male counterpart on the other side of the table. "If they [your parents] would have killed you before" over less-significant issues, then a pregnancy shouldn't be singled out as a potentially lethal family problem, Michael Smith countered.
The arguments these teens made for and against parental notification reflected - in part, at least - many of the points made by people of all ages in the war over abortion.
"If you need your parents' permission to get your ears pierced, why wouldn't you need it for an abortion?"
"What about the parent who says, `you just have to take the consequences and have the baby,' even though the girl can't handle it?"
"What if your parents had aborted you?"
"You don't need your parents' permission for lots of other medical choices - like birth control."
"What if a judge says you're too immature to choose an abortion? Is that saying you're mature enough to have a baby?"
These teens - who all said they would actively try to influence Gov. Douglas Wilder's decision on the bill - tried to counter some of those issues.
Stephanie Dickerson suggested that pregnant teens could go to a Crisis Pregnancy Center for help finding a place to live while they're pregnant, help with medical bills, and help placing a child for adoption.
Catie felt that was not a solution. At best, she said, the center would be offering shelter for less than nine months. When the mother went back home after that, "her parents would hate her more" and could consider her a traitor to the family. "Adults hate that."
She also raised the point that sex-education classes in the schools are not telling teen-agers much - if anything - that they didn't know going into them.
Michael Smith agreed.
"We need more education about the side effects, or aftereffects of abortion." There should be some "pros and cons on having the baby."
Jenny O'Brien wishes sex educators "would say exactly what happens [during the abortion procedure] - how they take the fetus out."
Sex education starts too late - not until eighth grade - Jennifer said. Mimi described hearing first-graders talk about "being ready for sex."
Catie complained that her school newspaper was forbidden from accepting advertising from Planned Parenthood or the Crisis Pregnancy Center, no matter how inoffensively the ads might be worded regarding the hazards of sexual activity among teens.
Michael Smith wondered whether Planned Parenthood ever addressed those hazards. Jennifer took the opportunity to describe how the agency annually reiterates to each recipient of birth control the consequences of incorrect birth-control use.
"Sex is a biological thing," Catie said. "You're not going to stop people from having it," so children need to be taught how to be responsible.
Teens on both sides of the issue said they consider it wrong to use abortion as just another birth-control method.
"Abortion would not always be my first choice" as the solution to a problem pregnancy, Mike said. But he worried that crippled children, "crack" babies and other disabled kids would never be wanted by adoptive parents.
Even in cases of rape and incest, "two negatives don't make a positive," Smith said. "That's true in algebra, but in life, it doesn't happen."
"You're right, life doesn't work out like math," Jennifer said, "but I don't see how you or I can decide for another person" whether abortion is appropriate.
There was general agreement that an interested father should be consulted about a pregnancy, but that he not be empowered to make the final decision.
However, a suggestion that it may be inappropriate for men to be involved in decisions on parental notification or abortion in general drew fire, not only from the two males in the group, but from some of the females.
While a man may not be able to empathize fully with a woman's pregnancy, "he can understand . . . right and wrong," Kristen Rossbacker said.
\ Teens on Parental Notice
Last week, the Roanoke Times & World-News invited eight teenagers to a round table discussion on recently passed legislation that would require any girl under 18 to notify her parents - or go through a court hearing - before getting an abortion. Four of the teens were from the youth organization at First Batpist Church in Roanoke. They agreed to have their names and pictures used. The other four were couselors from Teenline, a phone counseling service geared toward teens. Because of confidentiality concerns, the Teenline couselors are identified only by first names. Here is a selection of their comments:
"I believe [the law] will make people think seriously about abortion." Kristen Rossbacker a 16-year-old student at Roanoke Valley Christian School.
"T think if you have to have parental consent to have your ears pierced, you should have to have it for an abortion." Jenny O'Brien, 16, Patrick Henry High School
"I think it's a good law. If there are complications, then parents are responsible for their children." Stephanie Dickerson, 15, Roanoke Valley Christian School.
"I pray that Wilder will sign it. ...Why do they have to pass a law to let parents be parents?" Michael Smith,17, William Fleming High School.
"When some kids say,'my parents will kill me,' that's for real." Mike, 15, Cave Spring High School
"I'm terrified at the thought of passage of the bill. I'll actively campaign against it." Jennifer, 17, Cave Spring High School
"Some should have to have parental consent, others should not." Mimi, 15, Patrick Henry High School
"Sex is a biological thing. You're not going to stop people from having it." Catie, 15, Cave Spring High School
by CNB