Sex education, Abortions, and Parental Notification

Glutter’s Hong Kong

This is a highly contested issue in the US, so much so that some people say that’s part of the reason W. was reelected. This of course is not an issue in Hong Kong, as we are not a Christian city, and 1 in 3 recorded pregnancies are terminated although illegal abortions are rampant.

Today, I remember why sex education, legal abortions and having no parental consent is a really really important issue, even if not a legal battle in this city, but an issue of education, and getting the information out.

Because today, I sat across the table from a 19 year old boy who has gotten his 16 year old girlfriend and neither of them have a clue what to do. Thanks to a lot of misinformation, fear, and just a whole lot of bullshit from the people around them, has decided to try and raise about 10 thousand dollars (twice the amount of her monthly paycheck and he is unemployed) so she can have a back street abortion.

When I heard this I practically shouted, “Why don’t you go to the family planning clinic? It’s free!”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why aren’t you going to the family planning clinic? The government will pay for it!”

“No they won’t.”

“Yes they will, or at least it will be subsidized.”

“I don’t want to go to jail.”

“Why would you go to jail? It’s not illegal to have sex outside of marriage in this city.”

“But she’s 16.”

“And??”

“You will go to jail if you have sex with a girl if she’s not 18.”

“No you won’t, the age of consent in Hong Kong is 16.”

“That’s not what everyone says.”

“Well, that’s the truth.”

“You can’t get married until you are 18.”

“Yes, you can. As long as you are 16 and have parental consent. Anyway, this is a different issue. You won’t go to jail. You’re 19 anyway. It’s not like you are 45!”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Listen, you need to go to the family planning clinic, register her in and then ask for an abortion. You need two doctors signatures that will say that her mental and emotional health is at stake and the abortion will be granted.”

“No, it’s not that simple.”

“Yes it is. There are four rules: Mental, physical, emotional health of the mother may be affected, the child is abnormal in some ways, if the mother is under 16 and if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.”

“How do you know?”

“From school. From reading the papers? TV? I don’t know. You just do.”

“It can’t be.”

“Yes it is.”

“But will I go to jail?”

“Why would you go to jail??”

“Because she’s underage.”

“Sheee’s NOT.”

“Will they tell her parents?”

“That I don’t know, but if you go there or call them, then you can find out.”

Anyway, someone else interrupts and the conversation kinda fades. After that I felt so simply frustrated at the level of sex education the people at the table had. The lack of understanding of what is legal, what is not, what they are entitled to. If I had not gone to dinner this evening, if I never started to make my film and befriended these people. The two of them would have headed down some long strange way, of borrowing money from who knows, and endangering her health and future reproduction chances from some illegal procedure done by who know what, in who knows where.

After the dinner, I pulled the kid aside and told him I will find it all out for him, if he will listen to me. He nodded. I found out. No parental notification, everything I said at the table was correct. Tomorrow, I will go find him, probably make some calls for her, and hopefully the two of them will get some proper counseling, guidance on contraception, given the option for adoption etc. etc and if she so chooses, to have a safe legal abortion.

Sometimes things are just that simple.

If only people knew about it. It breaks my heart to know that here in this city we have such a great system, uncontested, open to all, and we have these kids running around scared, lost and in trouble.

Something is wrong, it’s missing in the chain. Female health and education needs to become a much bigger issue here.