Abortion Gang

If you are a teen in Alaska, click here for more information about your rights under this new law.

Last Tuesday in Juneau Alaska, it was announced that a battle was lost for women’s rights; Ballot Measure 2 was approved by voters. As a result, any person under the age of 17 wishing to have an abortion will have to wait 48 hours before having the procedure, while her doctor notifies at least one parent. If the doctor cannot make telephone contact with a parent, Ballot Measure 2 states that they are to continue to “call, in not less than two-hour increments, for not less than five attempts in a 24-hour period.” This will be putting a huge amount of pressure on the doctor who will likely have to adjust previously booked appointments so that they may call the women’s parents no less than five times a day. If the doctor does not follow these procedures, he or she will face criminal felony charges. The only way the teen’s parents would not have to be notified is if she goes before a judge and asks permission to get an abortion. Though the teen’s parents do not necessarily have to approve of her choice, they must be notified. After that, the judge may let her doctor proceed without notifying her parents. Two days after the doctor notifies her parents or she goes before a judge, she may finally be allowed to exercise her reproductive rights and have an abortion.

The majority of teens, who have an abortion, do voluntarily involve at least one parent in the process. Therefore the fact that a teen has not already told one of her parents shows it is likely to be dangerous for her family to know she is planning an abortion. More than 20% of young women, who choose not to tell their family about their abortion, do so because of fear that they may be kicked out of the house. Another 8% choose not to tell their family for fear of physical abuse, because they have been abused in the past. Even if she was not being abused, the outcome of her being forced to inform her parents would most likely be an unparallel amount of anguish and stress to everyone involved. To better understand what this would be like I reached out to several female teens who have a better understanding of what this would be like.

I posed the question to one teen named Jessica*: “What would happen to you if you were pregnant? What would your first step be, and who would you tell?” She said that she would first call her boyfriend Seth* to tell him. They have already discussed what would happen if she got pregnant and both have agreed that abortion would be the way to go, though Seth was slightly uneasy about it. Then, she said she would call Planned Parenthood to schedule the procedure. We both agreed that this is what most teens wanting an abortion would do.

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