I am Jenna.

Here’s a great article on Prop 4, and why Californians should vote No.
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_10112616?nclick_check=1

And here’s why I am voting No.

I am absolutely and unshakably convinced that this will do a lot more harm than good—and I have doubts that any good would come out of passing this measure.  Girls already go to their parents; obviously, since teen pregnancy is such a problem.  It’s not as if they can hide a late-term pregnancy, not to mention birth.  Those who couldn’t or wouldn’t go to their parents for whatever reason, imagined or not, could very well take it into their heads to try something dangerous.  I remember what it was like to be thirteen, fifteen, seventeen years old, seeing or hearing about another girl becoming pregnant.

When I was in junior high school an older girl was voted “High Tower Queen” (a junior version of the prom).  She was eight months pregnant at the time. This was obviously high profile for a bunch of twelve- to fourteen-year-olds, who talked it over endlessly: “What would you do if it was you?” There were hot debates about whether you should run away, try to get married first, and how you would “get rid of it”. We would’ve thought the baseball bat mentioned in the article a fantastic idea.  From running away to punching yourself in the stomach every morning and evening (or having your friends do it), surely the most idiotic idea was that of  jumping in front of a car. We actually argued about how fast the car should be moving, how high off the ground it had to be, and when the best time to jump out into traffic was to survive—and be sure that it worked. No one talked about abortion.

When I was in high school, there were a few pregnant girls, two or three every year, who would either drop out or continue classes until birth.  Either way, we all heard about it.  And while the stories weren’t quite as idiotic as the ones we had when we were younger, we told each other stories about homes for pregnant teens where  our parents would never be able to find us.  All you had to do was give a false name.  We talked about street kids—the homeless kids we saw in Hollywood. They were so glamorous and cool.  They were safe because they were together.  Again, no one talked about abortion.  Almost no one, anyway: any mention was dismissed because we were all positive the doctor would tell our parents, and paying for it ourselves was out of the question.  Who had hundreds of dollars? Some of us thought it was probably more expensive than breast implants.

Is this just teenage drama? You bet. But teenagers do stupid, stupid things all of the time.  Scared teenagers are even more likely to lose their heads and do something brainless.  The ones that instinctively trust their parents will tell them. For those who can’t even imagine trusting their parents, no law will force them to. You won’t be doing them any favors with this law.