Sex is a powerful drive, and humans are the most sexually driven species on earth. Although we could now argue that humans are the most successful species on earth, we can just as believably argue that we are the most fragile, and as recently as early biblical times, our very survival was tenuous. With a gestation period of nine months, a typical litter size of one, and a high infant mortality rate, it was that constant urge to "get it on" that assured a birth rate that at least matched the death rate. Can you imagine a real Wilma Flintstone telling Fred "We really need to start to work on another human being. I won’t be as much help for a while, and the business of popping him out will be a bitch, and it just might kill me, and he’ll probably be dead before he’s old enough to be very useful and meanwhile we’ll have to work even harder with our hunting and gathering. But someday, Fred, they’ll honor us for helping our species survive and people will make funny cartoons about us."
More likely it was something like "I’m still hungry and this cave is never warm enough. How about we do that thing again where you [well, we can omit the details, right? and I’m not sure exactly how cave people did it anyway] and we won’t feel cold and hungry for a while."
To which Fred probably said "I’m ready, Wilma. You are just soooo cute in those woolly mammoth-ear slippers. Hey, did you know that guy who rubs sticks together says that babies come from [don’t worry, I’m not going to describe it]."
"Those damned scientists. Next thing they’ll be telling us that it’s tiny bugs that make us sick."
Or if you prefer the Adam and Eve story, well, OK, you can imagine a comparable version, with the first two humans glumly leaving the Garden of Eden with the sex manual that God thoughtfully provided, trying to figure out what the reference to "children" meant.
Anything as universally powerful as sex is going to be subject to rules and regulations. Whether you like it or not, that’s the way it is. People don’t always agree on them. That’s another fact of life we have to live with. In the Judeo-Christian world, a guy named the Apostle Paul (who didn’t care much for women, according to most exegetes) decided that sex between unmarried people was a terrible sin, equal in gravity to adultery. That was new, and Jesus is never quoted as having objected to sex outside of marriage, but most branches of Christianity have run with it, and extreme Islam has treated it as a death penalty offense.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, that urge is strong as ever, but childbirth isn’t as much of a horror as it used to be, at least in places where women are treated as human beings and allowed adequate medical care. In advanced nations the majority of infants do survive to adulthood, and our species is, if anything, in danger of overpopulating our planet, rather than dying out because of insufficient replacement.
Recreational sex has never been as rare as many people think. It’s been relatively commonplace throughout history, as have various forms of contraception and abortion. In modern society, though, sexuality is more supercharged than ever. The onset of puberty is coming earlier and earlier, yet the age at which a young person can be truly self sufficient comes later and later.
It is now possible, and increasingly commonplace, for children of ten or eleven, or even younger, to procreate. It’s also possible with contraceptives for equally young children to be vigorously active sexually, with highly reduced chance of pregnancy resulting. When the contraceptives fail, as contraceptives do, where it is legal abortion is safer than ever. Please note that I am NOT saying that this is good; only that it is true.
When pre-pubertal children played doctor and nurse, the worst that was likely to occur was horrified parents and, sadly, sometimes bestially cruel punishment. When pubescent children experiment, however young they may be, biology may lead to very different results. I.e., pregnancy.
I personally cannot equate a fertilized egg with a human being, and certainly cannot fathom the belief that a fertilized egg has the same rights as a nine or ten year old child, or any living human being, for that matter. If you believe otherwise, that is your right, so long as you do not force it on me or anyone else. I know this will make some parents furious, but honestly, I do not think you have the right to force that belief on your pregnant daughter. At the same time, I cannot in good conscience say that a child who is too young to sign a legal contract should be able to demand a serious surgical procedure such as abortion as easily as buying a package of bubble gum. Our concepts of when adult responsibility begins are always troubled. They vary from time to time and place to place. Early in the 20th century, laws were passed in some American cities making it illegal to prostitute a child younger than nine! The age of consent in Michigan is sixteen, but if you show a pornographic picture to the 16-year-old you’re having sex with, you’re committing a felony. Children in their early teens can be tried as adults, but can’t buy alcohol legally. In fact, young Americans can be sent to die defending their nation when we’re under attack (or at the whim of a delusional president) as much as four years before they can legally buy a can of beer.
Well, sorry, but this may seem like I’m adding to all those inconsistencies. I’ve said elsewhere that our age of consent laws are far out of sync with reality and most the of the rest of the advanced world. If parents can persuade their children to wait until marriage to get have sex, fine. Just don’t use my tax dollars to enforce it, please. If you can convince teenagers that God will send them to hell for doing what God prepared their bodies to do many years earlier, and still keep them believing that God loves them, well, neat trick, but I have no objection. As far as coercion is concerned, absolutely, protect them from any sexual coercion by anyone, and I’m happy for you to use my tax dollars for that purpose.
But it’s just not sane, in my opinion, to go stark raving mad about a fifteen-year-old having consensual sex. Fourteen? Thirteen? Twelve? Depends on the circumstances.
Suppose we have two children, both post pubertal, both eleven years old, playing doctor and nurse. (Of course I know they wouldn’t call it that; more likely one of them would say "let’s try f----ing.") I don’t think that’s a huge crime, but it can have a huge, terrible result: An eleven-year-old girl pregnant. Forget childbirth: The pregnancy itself could kill her.
If the parents of those two children were not aware that they had entered puberty, I believe they had been seriously remiss, bordering on criminally negligent. If they knew, and were too deficient as parents to foresee the possibility of this occurrence and have a serious conversation with them about the likely consequences, without the hellfire and damnation static, then I think they were criminally negligent, just as I think it’s criminally negligent of schools not to have honest, factual sex education by that age.
So whether we like it or not, unmarried pregnant girls are one of those facts of life we have to live with. For the most part, if the girl is under 18 years of age, she cannot make a legal contract and can’t have ears pierced or get a tattoo, legally, without her parents’ consent. So what do what do we do with parents’ consent about abortion? It is, after all, a surgical procedure. The younger the girl, and the more advanced the pregnancy, the more dangerous it can be.
It does not seem logical to me, in this case, to say that it’s the girl’s decision alone, that any legal abortion provider should provide the service for her on request. But it’s ignoring some unpleasant facts of life also to say that she must bring at least one of her parents into the decision. For some girls, that would be risking their lives and/or the life of the male who contributed the sperm. For others, it would expose them to shame and ridicule, perhaps the loss of inheritance. Some parents would pay for the abortion then disown the girl.
It’s also true that some girls might believe their parents would be shocked, angry, and horrified, and would either harm them or reject them, when in truth the parents would be understanding and supportive. I’ve seen it work that way.
Here’s my plan. A little complicated, perhaps, but I think it will work.
Girls should know through sex education classes that they can report a pregnancy to any physician, and that the physician may not inform their parents or guardians without the girl’s permission;
A girl too young to consent to a surgical procedure on her own may be accompanied to an abortion clinic by another responsible adult. That would include an older sibling, grandparent, aunt or uncle, a spiritual advisor, a physician or therapist;
The girl should be advised of all the options available to her. A competent counselor should discuss with her the question of notifying her parents and the child’s father. The possibilities and relative dangers of continuing the pregnancy should also be discussed;
In the event the child cannot find a responsible adult to accompany her to an abortion clinic, any judge can appoint a secret guardian ad litem to handle the matter.
Complicated? Sure, but if we can be a little more rational about the whole issue, the process can be completed in a couple of weeks. "Completed" doesn’t necessarily mean the pregnancy is aborted. If the girl is physically capable of carrying a fetus to term, there are a number of other possible outcomes that I shouldn’t need to elaborate here.
I’m betting by now you’re wondering "What if that ‘responsible adult’ who takes her to the clinic is the jerk who knocked her up?" By my definition – an older relative, clergyman, therapist, etc. – impregnating her would have been an illegal act. A seriously illegal act if she’s the hypothetical ten-year-old.
Simple. If the responsible adult is a male, he leaves a DNA sample. If he turns out to be the one who contributed the sperm, well, we could give him credit for at least getting her there. Maybe knock a few days off his sentence.