Teenage Girls Obtaining Abortions Without Parental Knowledge at Alarming Rate

Numbers do not lie. In the US every year thousands of teenage girls under the age of 15 have an abortion. Currently there are 14 states, plus Washington D.C., that allow children to get an abortion without their parents consent or knowledge. And all 50 states have at least one loop-hole law that allows a child to bypass their parents to get the procedure done.

The statistics are daunting if you are a parent. The total number of abortions annually in the United States is always over a million. Furthermore, the amount of abortions performed on adolescents under the age of nineteen is horrifying. In 2006 alone, 3,865 abortions were performed on teenage girls 14 or under. However, this number is actually higher since three states, California (California alone is reportedly responsible for close to 23% of abortions in the United States, even though they refuse to report their numbers to the National Center for Disease Control) Louisiana and New Hampshire, did not report their numbers at all and one state, Florida, did not report their abortion statistics by age. The actual number of legally performed abortions on girls aged 14 or under is easily over 5,000 in the United States for the year 2006.

The number of reported abortions in 2006 for ages 15-19 were 121,073, but again that excuses California, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Florida, who does not report abortions or does not report the ages of the abortions.

As I said before in the first paragraph, 14 states currently have no laws forcing children to obtain parental consent or knowledge prior to getting an abortion performed. Those states are; Alaska (Alaska actually has a law against it but that law is not being enforced because of a court order), California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Again, District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) is also part of this group.

Interesting enough, a teenager could travel from one state to the other to obtain an abortion. For instance, if your child is a resident of Indiana your child would not legally be permitted to have an abortion without parental consent or knowledge. However, that child could travel to Illinois and legally have the abortion. Out of state abortion numbers and percentages have not been reported, though it is estimated that it frequently happens.

While the CDC (Center for Disease Control) gives a good federal number, it is not the only reliable statistic provider. The AGI (Alan Guttmacher Institute) is the other. AGI is the research arm for Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States.

Here are a couple of statistics from AGI.

40% of minors who have had an abortion report that neither parent knew about the procedure. (AGI)

Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended; about 4 in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion. (AGI).

According to Planned Parenthood, the main provider for abortions in the United States, their main agendas regarding abortion are:

• removing restrictions on abortion access
• expanding the number of abortion providers
• ensuring access to confidential health care for young women

Currently, including President Barrack Obama, most Democratic politicians support these causes. For information on your State Representatives, Senators, Governors or your President, search their voting records on issues pertaining to abortion.

If these numbers bother you remember them the next time you vote and know who you are voting for or against and what their agenda on abortion and your children represent.