Adolescent Sexuality and Public Policy: ALiberalResponse

Abstract

Conflicting U.S. statutes exist governing adolescent sexuality. While parents are allowed to remove their children from sex education, they cannot prevent their children from procuring medical care and contraception without parental awareness or consent. I argue that specialized consent statutes—statutes which empower adolescents to seek confidential reproductive and sexual health care—are an inappropriate solution to adolescent sexuality because (1) they empower individuals whom we otherwise believe are not ready for autonomous decision-making; (2) they endorse deception, which is the wrong message to be sending to our children; and (3) they are illiberal in that they circumvent parental decision-making authority to promote a particular conception of the good life. I argue that we should rescind these statutes and return these decisions to the family.