"Instead of using intellectual BS why don't you just admit that women have become worse than men in their lust for materialism and sexual pleasure above the life of their unborn child?" I don't admit that because I've yet to see any evidence to indicate that. It's difficult to draw conclusions from anecdotal evidence or broad generalizations. But I think it does make some logical sense that having high self-esteem and a sense of entitlement would make both men and women less likely to be responsible and more likely to avoid consequences. But again, that's anecdotal evidence. It's hard to draw a conclusion from such sentiment, but it can be done with future research.

Ms. Parker did mention the effects of abortion and the title of the column is "How Abortion Has Changed America." I think it's not too off-topic to discuss the effects abortion may or may not have had on the country.

Yes, I think that would be an accurate statement. The extent and nature of that symptom is hard to quantify, but I do think there's some logic behind it. Abortion may be an effect, but not a cause. It's certainly something worth researching.

Ad hominum attacks don't prove your point, nor do they disprove mine.

I would agree to an extent, but there's somewhat less research to indicate that feminism was a causal factor in the decline of marriage. However, I do think (at least on an anecdotal level) that women have more expectations of marriage these days than they did in the past and when those expectations aren't met, problems are more likely to arise. Men have a role in this as well, but the differences in expectations can't be understated and the self-esteem movement only reinforced those erroneous notions.

I also would contend that abortion itself gave birth to the culture of narcissism she mentioned. I agree that culture exists and is detrimental in a great many ways, as research has shown. But I don't think there's any evidence to indicate that abortion is a causal factor. The self-esteem movement was something that also began in the 70s independant of abortion. It was based on the erroneous conclusion that having high self-esteem led to success. That conclusion has long since been disproven, but the effects are still quite tangible and abortion has little, if anything, to do with it.

I don't doubt that abortion has changed society a great deal, but correlation does not equal causation. Attributing out-of-wedlock births to abortion has no tangible evidence and Ms. Parker didn't even cite the Brookings Institute research. I think there's a more substantial body of research that shows the decline in marriage coinciding with the emergence of no-fault divorce laws, which also emerged in the 70s. These polices made marriage less appealing, much more so than abortion.

This article also reminds me of my own experiences in that it isn't until recently that I've come to appreciate how my parents raised me. I stayed out of trouble. I didn't fall in with the wrong crowd or get involved in destructive habits. And whenever I told my parents something, they usually trusted me. And that trust didn't always extend to my three siblings. In recent times I've asked them about that and they've told me I never gave them a reason to worry. So they trusted me. And I credit them for teaching me the value of that trust, which I feel has served me well over the years. That is the true value of having great parents.

Thank you for sharing this story and I applaud you for such a monumental task. It is a difficult and often thankless task, but the long-term benefits cannot be understated. It's only tragic that parenting success stories like this are so often under-reported.

This is a good article. Teenagers are young and prone to mistakes. We were all young once and few can ever say they had sufficient critical thinking skills at a young age. Trust and privacy, like anything of value, needs to be earned. It can't just be given. Some teenagers will not think about the consequences of their actions. As such, it's a parent's duty to protect their child as best they can even when that child doesn't appreciate it.