abortion and teenage sex

Well, I just wrote a looooomg post and just before it was to post it disappeared. Crap.

I`ll do it tomorrow. No time today. But what I will say today is that there has been so much talk about this teenage sex thing. People have said the age of consent was dropping - and the Sunday Star Times certainly gave me that impression. Sixteen is the age of consent, has been for years, and was never going to change. Some say "Oh, its all semantics," like one radio announcer told me today. He maintained the Government was lowering the age of consent - but when you look at it, if that was the case, why the two year age gap for underage sex impunity? If htey were going to lower hte age of consent there would be no need for any age gap. That's like saying "Well, you can drink in a pub, if you are 16, but only of your mate ( and I dont mean a guardian)is 18. Age of consent and impunity are two quite different things, despite what Tony Ryall says

But it has ignited the abortion debate Bill English has come out saying that underage girls should not have abortions without parental consent. That is addresssed in the Care of Children Bill, which is to replace the 1968 Guardianship Act.Labour has all but acknowledged that the law permitting sex for 12 to 16-year-old children is wrong; so how can it justify allowing a girl of the same age to have an abortion without her parents knowing?

Helen Clark was on radio this morning trying to explain it away. She did an appalling job. Her excuse: It's been the law for ages, so why change it. That's all she could say. She didn't say that about prostitution, though did she? She never said " Prostitution -related activities have alwauys been regarded as criminal offences as lets keep it that way"..