‘I feel like my right as a parent has been taken away from me,” Maureen Smith, the girl’s mother, explained. ”I feel like I’ve had my heart ripped out so God knows what my daughter is going through. When she had her appendix out I signed two forms but nobody thought to tell me about this.”
So, should the Brunts School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, have usurped parental responsibility and proceeded without consulting the mother? As a parent, how would I react if I discovered that my daughter’s school had arranged a termination without my knowledge? The answer, of course, is that I would be devastated.
But, contrary to the views of the pro-life campaigner Victoria Gillick, who tried and failed in 1991 to remove a teenager’s right to patient confidentiality, I would still defend the exclusion of parents from the decision-making process if such action preserves the well- being of a child.
Or, to put it more bluntly, some parents just aren’t grown-up enough to be included in many life-changing decisions (and every parent, at times, has a tendency to act like a child). Some parents are violent, abusive or excessively controlling, unable to see what is in their child’s best interests because they are too concerned with their own.
If a young girl still believes a termination is the best option available to her then she has weighed up the arguments and made her own choice. She has, in short, acted with maturity. Young people make mistakes, but that doesn’t detract from their ability to go on and act as responsibly as they can to clear up the ensuing mess.
Claire Allerton, the deputy principal at the school, says a letter is sent to all parents at the start of every school year, explaining that parental consent for a termination is not required by law, ”other than in the rare circumstances when the young person is judged not to be sufficiently mature to take part independently”.
Michelle Smith had been going out with Dwain, also 14, for eight months. They had unprotected sex and a pregnancy test three weeks ago proved positive. The school referred her to an outreach health worker. Michelle was asked if she wanted to inform her parents and she replied, as many girls have done in the past, and no doubt will do so in future — ”My mum would kill me.”
She was referred to hospital and took a ”chemical abortion” — two pills taken 48 hours apart that result in miscarriage — a fortnight ago. Michelle now says, ”I feel like I wasn’t ready to make a decision about the baby. If I had my chance again, I think I probably would have kept the child and I would have let my mum know.”
It is not much consolation now, but when the furore abates, Michelle will probably discover that she took the right decision. The truth is that in the United Kingdom too many teenagers have unprotected sex, become pregnant and then do not have an abortion. One reason may be that they have mothers, often trapped in poverty, who have had their own aspirations squashed and who, therefore, unconsciously limit their daughters’ horizons.
It is a truism that when a middle class girl becomes pregnant, an appointment is made with the doctor; if she is a girl without any qualifications, an appointment is made with the midwife. Aspiration remains the best form of contraception. The risk of becoming a teenage mother is almost 10 times higher for a girl from a lower social class than for a girl from a professional class.
Babies born to teenage mothers are 60% more likely to die in the first 12 months of life than those born to older mothers. The anti-abortionists should consider the following fact: halving the number of teenage pregnancies could save up to 100 babies a year. Teenage mothers are also more likely to experience post-natal depression. They are more likely to stay on benefits or in dead-end jobs, rearing daughters who themselves often enter motherhood prematurely.
Smith has said that Michelle will be ”affected for life” by this termination. ”This is one of the worst things she will go through.”
If it is, then she will be extremely fortunate. Abortion is almost always presented as a cataclysmic event in a woman’s life. The truth is that it can have a hugely varied impact, depending on age and circumstance.
For many women, rightly or wrongly, a termination leaves only the barest imprint on their memory. For others, it’s the decision they most regret. It is a pity that the only message being fed to Michelle at the moment is one that says long-term psychological damage is a distinct possibility. — Â