Every year, about 40 percent of teenage girls who become pregnant in the United States choose to have an abortion. Around 274,000 abortions were performed on teenage girls in 1996. This figure has caused much controversy between people who advocate a teenager’s right to choose abortion and those who argue in favor of her unborn child.

Pro-life advocates argue that a young girl should not be able to have an abortion, because it violates an unborn child’s right to life. They contend that abortion is murder and is therefore unethical. According to the Teachers for Life Association, “Abortion kills an unborn child. A society that allows abortion is denying the most fundamental human right—the right to life—to one group of human beings, the unborn.” Although some abortion critics make exceptions for teenagers whose...