Many American mothers and fathers will wake up today to find their daughter is pregnant and she doesn't want to be. Parents will begin the search for abortion care for their daughter. Depending where you live in America you may or may not be able to find the care you seek. Your daughter may be early or she may be late in her pregnancy. Teens delay telling parents, are in denial about the pregnancy themselves and hide their tummies very well. If you daughter starts wearing large bulky sweatshirts beware.
These daughters are beyond the hope of pregnancy prevention including abstinence. No discussion on sex education will help this young woman get what she needs now. She needs to no longer be pregnant and finding someone to do "that" i.e. "provide abortion care" can be difficult if not impossible these days. Don't expect help from your own doctor as very few private physicians offer abortion care. Risk abounds for doctors and the staff who provide abortion care from protestors to the real possibility of being shot. And some of us face a hostile state government threatening licensure at every turn. Who in their right mind would provide care in this kind of environment?
Our daughters who need abortion care are as young as ten and manage to continue to " get themselves pregnant" into their early fifties. Our daughters are experiencing a crises in the middle of America. From North Dakota to Mississippi our daughters and their families fight to access abortion care because over the past decade it has been increasingly impossible to provide this very simple and basic medical care. There are few providers and the state refuses to help. Most reading this post will say "So What" and move on as "abortion care" is so distasteful and divisive and better left for more lofty goals like peace and the environment with "prevention of pregnancy" as the ultimate resolution so everyone can move forward with a clear conscience.
But what about those women (our daughters) who are trapped by pregnancy in a state that makes abortion care impossible? For a current documented example go to PBS Frontline'sThe Last Abortion Clinicwhere you can watch this documentary via video streaming to see how the state treats our pregnant Mississippi daughters.
As a caring parent you want your daughter to receive the best care possible. You want her to be treated with kindness and courtesy and not be judged or condemned as no one else can really understand what your family is going through. You believe she deserves quality medical care. If she is early (we offer care starting at 3 weeks pregnant) the procedure takes less than five minutes with a hand held syringe under local anesthesia. Early termination (where over 90 percent of U.S. terminations occur) is fast, simple and can be done in any doctor's office. But if you are in the middle of America attempting to procure this very simple minor surgery you may have to travel hundreds of miles and possibly walk through a maze of screaming protestors. You will be one of the lucky ones because you have the means to travel. Parenthood occurs every day in America because of lack of transportation and access to services, from birth control to our topic today, abortion care.
As a parent you want your daughter to receive care from a highly skilled physician but your state most probably does not offer early, "elective" abortion care training. Even if your daughter is ELEVEN this will be considered an ELECTIVE minor surgery though at this point motherhood would not be "elective" if abortion care is denied. Most probably you will have to sign a parental consent statement if your daughter is under 18 which will need to notarized...stating you are the parent and you give your permission for your daughter’s abortion. You also will probably have to have your daughter sit through a state mandated speech from a physician in person individually. And again the state does not offer or pay for these "state required information sessions" replete with photographs of the developing pregnancy (which we are required to give your daughter regardless of your wishes). Then you must wait. Your daughter cannot receive abortion care until she waits a certain period of time mandated by the state which usually is 24 hours. And if your daughter is very young a police report may be required. State laws vary but pregnancy at an early age is cause for alarm and a guarantee that "parental protection and supervision" will keep this from happening again is sought and filing of criminal charges may occur. And offenders will be prosecuted. We regularly release the "pregnancy tissue" to law enforcement for DNA analysis. For the past ten years of so this advancement in science has helped jail many offenders, some of whom had been preying on young women for years and years. No more "he said she said" as young women now have the protection of science on their side...if they can access abortion care. If they can’t, well...
Parents who find their daughters are pregnant and don’t want to be this morning and manage to access abortion care are the lucky ones. Many parents will find accessing abortion care impossible and will resign themselves to their little girl becoming a mama way too early. This fifteen year old will have a baby and the world will not end. There are many good reasons to be a mother but inability to travel to an abortion provider is not one of them.
How can we help our daughters receive quality abortion care in middle America? How can public policy (this means politics) help our "middle America daughters" receive the quality abortion care they deserve? What should our Democratic presidential candidates be saying about this? "Safe, legal and rare" hardly seems to answer this pressing human need. Our daughters deserve better.