April 12, 2013 - So yeah... I've kinda been holding my tongue on a lot of commentating with this storyline until this specific comic ran. I really wanted to establish that Nina's actions were consensual and that her parents are not aware of her sexual behavior before saying anything. Not having such issues established this storyline could very easily have become one about child abuse and autonomy instead of the issue I really wanted to address which is examining whether parental notification laws make it more or less likely teenagers have access to the medical care they may need.

I think the general argument in favor of parental notification laws basically seems to argue it's a way of protecting children who don't know any better, and yes, Nina seems fairly ignorant about many of the circumstances regarding her situation. But I don't see how a parental notification law would actually change those circumstances. In cases of abuse, sure it could shed light on the problem and help bring relief to such a situation, but there are other ways of checking for abuse, some of which are redundant with parental notification laws and many of which are designed to recognize and handle situations involving parental abuse, which is an unfortunately relatively frequent form of abuse which parental notification laws seem to ignore completely. Furthermore such laws only bring aid to teenagers if they ask (either willingly or under duress) for an abortion. This doesn't bring aid to victims of abuse who don't seek an abortion (either willingly or due to pressure from their abusers who are thus encouraged to continue to limit their victims free will by making the choice for them) and more importantly it doesn't prevent the pregnancy to begin with.

Getting back to Nina, she probably could have done a lot of things to not get pregnant. Her circumstances may be indicative of any number of factors ranging from hormones, inattentive parenting, or a poor sexual education. In fact, it's likely a combination of a lot of these things, and now that she is pregnant, it's a question of how does she get care for that. This is her issue, and she's entitled to make her own decisions regarding who's involved. Trained medical staff obviously should be able to help, and though some parents might be a great resource in Nina's situation others may react negatively and impose unwelcome consequences for such circumstances (which again doesn't change those circumstances).

In Nina's case, she's pretty worried about losing the freedom to choose where to go to school and being grounded, which may seem petty, but let's face it, as a teenager stuff like that was a pretty big deal. And though I can't say for certain what obstacles would make someone resort to Nina's rather extreme suggestion of performing amateur surgery on herself, I can't see any obstacle that might cause someone to consider something like that to be a good thing.

I think it goes without saying that Nina's pretty ignorant of the risks involved, and whenever someone introduces new obstacles to women seeking abortions I can't help but feel they're ignorant of the risks of not having abortion services available. I've seen many arguments against Planned Parenthood that argue that the company's corrupt and their facilities are poorly maintained. If that's your best argument (and for many people it seems to be), then make a better abortion provider, try to ensure your hospital or other clinics provide such services so women have other options. If women have multiple options to choose where to have an abortion, they will go to the place that offers the best services in terms of quality and cost forcing weaker options to go out of business, it's the foundation of supply and demand that our economy's built on. Meanwhile imposing restrictions designed to close such clinics down only drives up demand without affecting supply, making things far worse, not better. But now, maybe I'm drifting off topic, so have a good weekend. Seeya Monday.

-D