Gallup Poll says majority of Americans identify as pro-life

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

I've gotta tell you...once an underage girl becomes pregnant, for all purposes of her medical care, she is an ADULT. It doesn't matter if she is 9 years old. I think then saying you're an adult and have to make your own medical decisions as a mother, but if you want an abortion you are now a minor and have to ask permission of your parent is stupid.

And as the father of an 8 1/2.-year-old girl, I think treating a 9-year-old as an adult for almost any purpose is stupid.

She is not an adult. Similar treatments may be called for and the like, but she is not an adult. She cannot make decisions like an adult. She cannot understand the consequences of her decisions like an adult (or like an adult should be able to do).

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

And as the father of an 8 1/2.-year-old girl, I think treating a 9-year-old as an adult for almost any purpose is stupid.

She is not an adult. Similar treatments may be called for and the like, but she is not an adult. She cannot make decisions like an adult. She cannot understand the consequences of her decisions like an adult (or like an adult should be able to do).

That may be true, but it is the reality of the situation. I think if you look at it from a medical perspective, 9 year old pregnant girls likely don't have reasonable parents to help them make decisions anyway. I didn't make the rule, but trust me...it's how it works.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

That may be true, but it is the reality of the situation. I think if you look at it from a medical perspective, 9 year old pregnant girls likely don't have reasonable parents to help them make decisions anyway. I didn't make the rule, but trust me...it's how it works.

That's interesting, because there you have a situation where the legal and medical approaches are apparently opposed to each other. That adds a whole other layer to the discussion, in my view, although it starts to get off on a tangent (i.e. at what age should people be able to make their own medical decisions).

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

That may be true, but it is the reality of the situation. I think if you look at it from a medical perspective, 9 year old pregnant girls likely don't have reasonable parents to help them make decisions anyway. I didn't make the rule, but trust me...it's how it works.

Oh, I agree that in the hypothetical 9-year-old child's family is not likely to be much help. That's why there are guardians ad litem and the like.

And I know you didn't make the rules. But if that's really how it works, this passage from Oliver Twist is brought to mind:

“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.”