CARE confidential, the pregnancy crisis service has expressed its grave concerns over government guidelines that allow under-age girls to have access to abortion facilities without their parents’ knowledge.
The alarming new crisis in the abortion row has come about after the launch of a High Court case earlier this week.A mother of five, Sue Axon, has urged the High Court to change the current laws, and is asking for the right to allow parents to know if their children are planning an abortion or being given contraception.
CARE confidential, which networks between 160 separate independent pregnancy care centres has backed the call and asked for government guidelines to be changed.
The head of CARE confidential, Joanna Thompson said, “The current guidelines on under-age abortions only succeed in undermining parental responsibility.
“Whatever a young girl chooses, she needs to have the support of those closest to her. Taking a course of action that encourages a secret cuts her off from any of this support.”
She added, “All teenagers have secrets, but this kind of secret is not good. To hide something so big can lead to a breakdown in the relationship between parent and child.”
Mrs Axon, who is a 51-year old, has two teenage daughters, and has passionately argued that she has the duty to care for them until they are at least 16. However, she has also pointed out that she is blocked in fulfilling this responsibility is she is not allowed to be informed of their medical health and general wellbeing.
The guidelines were issued by the Department of Health in 2004, and they state that a health professional can offer advice and treatment to young people under the age of 16 “without parental knowledge of consent” on the condition that the child has a full understanding that the advice and the treatment are being given in their best interests.The current guidelines on under-age abortions only succeed in undermining parental responsibility.
Joanna Thompson, Head of CARE Confidential
