WHERE DOES THE PLANNING PART COME IN? :

Girls Link Their Use of Family Planning Clinics to Keeping Parents in the Dark (JULIE FLAHERTY, August 14, 2002, NY Times)

Most girls under 18 would stop or limit their use of sexual health services at family planning clinics if their parents had to be told they were seeking prescribed contraceptives, a new survey shows. Among the 950 sexually active girls ages 12 to 17 who were surveyed at Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin in 1999, 47 percent said they would stop using the clinic entirely and 12 percent more said they would stop or postpone testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including H.I.V.

If the folks at these clinics really counsel children as young as 12 about how to have sex and don't report them to their parents, they should be prosecuted. If they tell them they're competent to make decisions about the life and death of their babies, they should go to prison. These are girls who we don't let drive a car, drink, or smoke, but these folks tell them it's okay to get an abortion? Posted by Orrin Judd at August 14, 2002 12:40 PM