The Florida Supreme Court is at it again. This time the subject matter is abortion for minors and the requirement that they let their parents know before they have the surgical procedure done. As is stands now, the majority of justices on the state’s high court don’t believe that a minor should have to let their parents know. It’s a matter of their right to privacy, don’t you know.

Bebe Anderson, a staff lawyer for the Center for Reproductive Rights (and we can only hope that she doesn’t procreate), said that for all intensive purposes the issue is said and done. She continued to say that as the Florida Supreme Court decides only issues with regard to state law the US Supreme Court couldn’t review the case. As she dances in the streets celebrating the "adultification” of our minors, we are seeing them thrust through childhood so quickly that they have the responsibility of adults with the knowledge of children. With this decision we are facing an ethical, moral and legal dilemma that needs to be addressed at the earliest possible moment.

We call children minors because they are not emancipated. We watch over them because they haven’t gathered the knowledge to make intelligent decisions all of the time. And while some would argue that there are adults in the world who make less mature decisions than some minors, and this is true, for the most part the status quo of parent knowing better what to do stands true. Parents are responsible for their children, their well-being and their actions until they are 18 years of age. To say that they shouldn’t be informed of their children under-going even an outpatient surgical procedure is ridiculous! Tell me, who would be held responsible if the procedure were to go horribly wrong? Would society wonder where the parents were, as they should, if, let’s say, the young girl hemorrhaged to death because of a surgical mistake?

With the mainstream media stuffing sexuality down the throats of our children each day via television and the movies, radio and the print media, the instance of teen pregnancy has reached epidemic proportions. The possibility of the abortion procedure being used as a tool of contraception, a quick adolescent fix to a very adult situation, is enormous. In essence, what the Florida Supreme Court is saying to the minors, the children of Florida with this decision is, if you make a poor decision and find yourself in a life altering predicament you can have the option of not being responsible for your actions. I can’t even begin to address the access that the men-children of Florida have to the escape-hatch of responsibility through this decision. I would be surprised if the condom sales in Florida don’t drop dramatically as a result of this decision.

Then there is the very serious matter of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. In the adult mind the fear of STD’s is, or at least should be, at the forefront. But in the minds of our children, sadly, that isn’t always the case. This decision, by allowing a minor child the option of terminating a pregnancy after the fact, removes the idea of critical thinking before the act. As is the case in many a household, it isn’t always true that parents have had the wherewithal to impress upon their children the raw realities of the world, especially when it comes to the subject of sex. In fact, some parents never have "the talk” with their children, leaving them to find out about it on the streets. I am quite sure that those minors aren’t introduced to STD’s until after the fact and usually this is because they have to deal with them first hand.

Then there is the psychological damage that can come with the deep emotional issue of terminating a pregnancy. There are full-grown women in the world who have trouble with the reality of pregnancy termination. With the medical community still at odds as to when life starts it is easy to see why many women, and in this case many girls, would have a problem with the thought of terminating a pregnancy. Although groups like NOW and Ms. Anderson’s group the Center for Reproductive Rights fight for the very singular right to have an abortion they are less than productive when it comes to making sure that young women, and for that matter all women, are fully prepared for the psychological trauma that can accompany the act of terminating a pregnancy (If there is any doubt about this look into seeing how in-depth the counseling session is at any abortion clinic prior to the procedure. The pamphlet is very enlightening – insert sarcastic lilt here). This load, on top of the incredibly heavy societal load that our youth experience today, can lead to a lifetime of after thought, reflection and self-deprecation. This is precisely why a parent needs to know that a decision with the potential of being life-altering is being made. To remove this opportunity for parental counsel is tantamount to irresponsibility.

In an age when our youth are being arrested for slaughtering each other on the streets and in our schools, when the role of parent is being assumed, and unjustifiably so, by the incredibly liberal school system, we need to start re-injecting some common sense into our society. If a parent is going to be responsible for their child, and the key word here is child, when they go to a powder-puff football game and haze the younger players so viciously that bones are broken and stitches are received, if a parent is going to be held responsible when a minor has access to alcoholic beverages, if a parent can be hauled away and thrown into jail because they left their child home alone, then it should be that a parent should have the right to know if their under-aged daughter is contemplating a surgical procedure. The double standard here is glaring.

The right to privacy? Right! How about the right to a childhood?

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer for The Washington Dispatch, GOPUSA, OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.