Old saws

Tony Ryall is harping on that old saw, parental consent for teen abortions. And so, in the same spirit, I'll just regurgitate what I said about it last year:

Parental consent laws mean parents forcing their children to have children. They treat young girls in bad circumstances like brood mares. Bill EnglishTony Ryall may be fine with that, but I regard it as a fundamental insult to human dignity.

People have a right to sovereignty over their own bodies - even teenagers. Forcing women to have children (or, conversely, to have an abortion) is a particularly invasive violation of that right, akin to sexual slavery or enforced prostitution. We throw the book at people who do that, and we throw it harder for people who do it to teenagers. So why the hell should we let parents get away with it?

Children are not property, and they should not be treated as such. Tony Ryall should be ashamed of himself for suggesting that they be.