A recent Teen Vogue column instructs minors on how to get abortions without their parents’ permission.
The June 6 column, titled How to Get an Abortion if You’re a Teen answers a question from a 16-year-old who writes, “I’m 16, I’m pregnant, and I don’t want to be. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to get an abortion without my parents’ permission, but I’m really scared to tell them because they are both against abortion. What should I do?”
The columnist, Nona Willis Aronowitz, responds, “I can only imagine how overwhelming it might feel to announce an actual pregnancy, much less a desire to get an abortion — in any circumstance, really, but especially to parents who are against it, and especially during a time in American history when the bodily autonomy of people with uteruses is under serious threat.”
Aronowitz then assures the teen, “Having access to abortion should be your right, regardless of your parents’ beliefs.”
The author also tells the teen that “accidents happen” and claims if teens are mature enough to become parents, “they are mature enough to decide whether or not they want to give birth.”
From there, Aronowitz links to a website with information on reproductive health consent laws by state.
“If you live in one of the handful of states in which a minor can get an abortion without parental involvement — and if you don’t want to tell your parents — you’re all set,” she writes. “But if the law does require that your parents are involved, it’s time for some soul-searching about how you think they’ll react when confronted directly with their pregnant child’s desire to not be.”
She then takes a swipe at “supposedly anti-abortion Americans,” whom she says “often get abortions” and “often help their children procure abortions.”
“You know those activists who stand outside clinics holding signs adorned with Bible verses and pictures of fetuses?” she writes. “Even they sometimes get abortions.”
