Counseling Abortion with Minor

Counseling Abortion with Minor

INTRODUCTION

Nancy, a young girl of school, is 16 years old. She is pregnant and thinking and considering an abortion. She comes to her school counselor, seeking help. She needs to discuss her problem with someone outside of her family. The counselor of her school has two options to provide her appropriate resources for abortion or inform her parents about her problem. If the counselor chooses the first option, to provide her the resources to reach a family planning clinic and get the abortion done, than there is an ethical dilemma associated with such cases and the counselor might be sued by the Nancy or her parents after the abortion. The aim of writing this paper is to discuss the ethical dilemma and the state laws, ASCA rules and school policies which underpin the case.

DISCUSSION

School owes a trusting relationship with all the students. According to the school policies, a counselor has extended obligations and responsibilities to inform the teachers, parents, administrators, the school community and district about the problems of students. There are numerous ethical and legal complications of working with the underage students in a school, especially regarding to the value-laden issues of abortion (Gold & Nash, 2007). The situation that has been stated above involves the Nancy 's privacy right but also involves her family's values regarding to the sexual conduct, religious beliefs, and parents right to take decisions in the child's life and to be informed when a student need medical treatment (Borgmann & Jones, 2000).

According to the Georgia State law (Sanger, 2004), there is a ban on the partial birth abortion. The law also encompasses the following statements

Prior to the abortion, the woman must receive a counseling

There must be at least 24 hours gap between abortion and counseling

Public funds will not be used in abortions

Parental consent and notification is required

No partial-birth abortions

Abortion bans after viability

A counselor may be held liable if he did not inform parents and school administration about the student's pregnancy problem and for giving abortion advice. Pregnancy is clearly a potential safety and health risk that need nutritional and medical attention that is why it requires a call to home for these reasons (Stone, 2002). If the counselor did not inform at home by making a phone call and gave advice to the student about abortion, in this case there may occur many medical complications and Nancy could have a miscarriage and many health problems can emerge from the miscarriage that will be resulted in a potential lawsuit from the parents, when they will come to know that Nancy has reported her pregnancy in the school (Beenhakker, Becker, Hires, Molano Di Targiana, Blumenthal & Huggins, 2004).

First of all the counselor must ask that how the pregnancy is confirmed either by a self pregnancy test or by a doctor and then tell the student that he is going to call at her home (Jones, Finer & Singh, 2010). Counselor must take the student in confidence first by asking ...