Parental Notification
Via World O'Crap, I found this site, which endorses the concept of presenting a daughter with a "purity locket" and recommends the following:
...."Start by explaining the "covenant" part of the equation. Begin with, "Sue, thank you for this evening. It is one we both will always treasure. I want to commemorate this day and our covenant with this." Then open the jewelry box and let the gold do the talking for just a moment. Then say, "This locket is handmade from precious metal - just the way God made you. This locket and what it stands for is the sentinel of your heart. Here's why: from this day forward you will wear this locket as often as you wish. It will send the statement that you are waiting for your husband. It is more than that though, Sue. It has a lock on it. It can only be opened with this key. I will guard the key until your wedding. On that day, I will present the key to my little girl's heart to your husband. He will take the key and open the locket, the only one ever to do so."" ....
The site also includes some "helpful hints" such as:
...."Do let her know "safe sex" is a lie - not only from a Biblical context but from a health context as well. Do not be afraid to communicate the hard truth about promiscuity. Let her know how unpleasant and life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases can be. This can be a difficult subject to broach - but it is essential.
"Do let her know that while unconditional love is from God, so is the fear of the consequences of sin. Sadly, that kind of healthy fear is missing from the discipline repertoire of most American homes - including American Christian homes. Your child should absolutely, positively fear the consequences of sin - including having to tell you that she has failed.
"Do make sure that when you do communicate the concept of fear that you do not close off communications to the point that your child does not feel free to open up to you to confess, repent, restore and begin again. Make certain that that is always a part of the equation.
"Do make sure that it is a foundational part of your child's values and principles that abortion is simply not an option. Ever. Again, it is critical that she knows she can talk to you. The balance between fear and love is manageable only when your child knows that your love is unconditional. Let her know that you are safe to discuss her deepest dilemmas and most plaguing problems." [emphasis added]....
Some of the teenagers who receive these lockets and lectures are going to get pregnant, especially if they are not taught anything about contraceptives, or do not have access to them. They will likely attempt to obtain abortions without their parents' knowledge. Another possibility, though, is that a pregnant, locketed teen will confide in a parent, who will help her get an abortion despite years of expressing passionate opposition to it.
Though I do not, and would not, propose this in any practical sense for a variety of reasons, I sometimes wish that all women could be compelled to publicly declare themselves in favor of, or opposed to, abortion rights. The consequence of declaring oneself opposed to abortion rights would be that you couldn't obtain one. You'd be free to change your declaration, and announce that you had changed your mind and now supported abortion rights, and that would make the procedure available to you. Once you had an abortion, however, while you'd be able to again change your public statement back to "oppose," your declaration would contain a notice that your opposition had suddenly dissipated when you wanted to take advantage of the legality of abortion, and your opposition had only returned afterwards. The declarations would be tallied and compiled into three categories: "Support," "oppose" and "hypocrit."
If women knew that the availability of abortion to themselves personally was linked to their willingness to openly declare themselves pro-choice, I suspect that a lot fewer women would be publicly anti-choice. If women had to declare themselves pro-choice to obtain abortions for their daughters, the pro-choice contingent would increase even more. Most data suggests that the majority of women in this country already support abortion rights, despite the censure they may receive, and without receiving any privileges for doing so. They are simply honest.
Anti-choice parents who try everything they can to help their daughters avoid unplanned pregnancies - lockets, lectures, purity rings - will generally not forgo the abortion option as a backstop for their children, but often will continue to express opposition to abortion even after they have assisted their daughters in obtaining abortions, sometimes even more loudly still. The level of hypocrisy on this issue is astounding. These parents always have an explanation for why the overall wretched wrongness of abortion doesn't apply in the particular case of their kids: "She's only 14," "She was pressured into sex," "She didn't know any better," "She messed up but needs to make a clean start," "She has such a bright future, it shouldn't be taken away from her," "The boy refuses to marry her," "We can't afford another mouth to feed," "We are too old to raise the child ourselves," "No man will want her if she has this child," "Pregnancy will destroy her figure," "Unmarried pregnancy would reflect badly on the family," etc. But they still profess to oppose abortion in principle.
Because it would be so hard on the teenagers involved, no clinic is likely to disclose the identities of children of public abortion opponents who have abortions with their parents' permission (and rightly so) but anyone who works in reproductive services can tell you that the number is substantial. Those teenagers have a right to abortion, and the upside to this phenomenon is they get to exercise those rights. But I wish there was a way to deny abortions to those who work to take abortion rights away from others, a locket that opened only with the key of full and fair disclosure on this issue to the public, and to their children.