I think teens are second-class citizens in a different way than women and minorities might be. Teens have fewer rights than adults, and not only is this explicitly institutionalized in law, but everyone thinks it's a good idea -- teens, we are told, are less responsible than adults and hence ought not to have the rights that are supposedly conditioned on responsibility. (And all the adults who exercise these rights do so responsibly. Suuure.) Women and minorities, on the other hand, are not explicitly made second-class citizens -- they have the right to vote, to take an obvious difference, and hence have the political power to insist that they be made "first-class" citizens. Nor does everyone agree that these groups are targets of legal discrimination, and those who do agree on this usually consider it a bad thing. Comparing the rights denied to teens to the rights denied to women understates teens' disenfranchisement
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The reply to the question in your last paragraph (what kind of input should a father have in the decision for abortion) might be too personal and cynical for an LJ comment. Ask me in person or on the phone, and I will be happy to answer.
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