Teen Vogue tells pregnant 16-y-o how to get an abortion behind parents' backs
Teen Vogue is giving pregnant teenagers advice on how they can get abortions without their pro-life parents ever knowing about it. In the advice column, the author degrades pro-life activists as hypocrites "who stand outside clinics holding signs adorned with Bible verses and pictures of fetuses” but get abortions when it suits them.
In a June 6 advice column, Nona Willis Aronowitz published a letter from a pregnant teen who wants to get an abortion without informing her pro-life parents.
“I'm not sure if I'm allowed to get an abortion without my parents' permission, but I'm really scared to tell them because they are both against abortion,” wrote the teen.
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In response, Aronowitz said she could “only imagine how overwhelming it might feel to announce an actual pregnancy, much less a desire to get an abortion ... especially to parents who are against it, and especially during a time in American history when the bodily autonomy of people with uteruses is under serious threat.”
The advice columnist told the girl that she had nothing to be ashamed of in being pregnant because “accidents happen,” adding: “it’s only logical that if teens are mature enough to become parents, they are mature enough to decide whether or not they want to give birth.”
“Having access to abortion should be your right, regardless of your parents’ beliefs,” she declared.
The columnist lamented that “unfortunately” the laws of many American states do not agree with her, and advised the teen that if she did not live in one of the states that permits minors to get abortions without parental consent, to consider telling her parents.
Many pro-life advocates, Aronowitz claimed, have either gotten abortions or have helped their own daughters undergo such a procedure.
“One thing I’ve learned while researching and reporting on these issues is that supposedly anti-abortion Americans often get abortions,” she wrote.
“They often help their children procure abortions. You know those activists who stand outside clinics holding signs adorned with Bible verses and pictures of fetuses? Even they sometimes get abortions.”
As evidence, she quoted an Alabama abortionist who claimed to have performed the procedure “on some of the very people who protest abortions.”
Aronowitz then advised the girl to consider a “judicial bypass procedure,” “a legal option in 36 states that would let you get an abortion without parental approval,” should her parents react with violence or anger.
She suggested that a “clinic” would help the girl go through the legal procedure and also provided a link to a pro-abortion legal advice group as well as a link to groups that claim to help pay for women's abortions.
The advice columnist argued that many women have undergone abortions, adding: “everybody loves someone who’s had an abortion. Including you.”
Teen Vogue, which claims its goal is to “educate, enlighten and empower our audience to create a more inclusive environment,” recently published an op-ed called "Why Sex is Real Work."
In it, author Tlaleng Mofokeng compared the experiences of prostituted people with her own profession as a doctor.
"I do not believe it is right or just that people who exchange sexual services for money are criminalized and I am not for what I do,” she said. “Is a medical degree really the right measure of who is deserving of dignity, autonomy, safety in the work place, fair trade and freedom of employment? No. This should not be so. Those who engage in sex work deserve those things, too."
She went on to argue that criminalizing prostitution harmfully impacts women and trans-identified males who call themselves women, and therefore, "sex worker rights" constitute a feminist and women's rights issue.
In July 2017, the magazine received much criticism after it published a "What You Need to Know" advice column on anal sex written by Gigi Engle. The column provided detailed instructions to teen girls and LGBT youth about anal sex.
In response “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston publicly burned a copy of the magazine and asserted that "Teen Vogue magazine must be pulled from all store shelves" and that it is "a danger to children."
Evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of the late Billy Graham, called upon parents and grandparents to avoid the publication and not to allow this “kind of trash [to] be pawned off on our children.”
