I think this is a harder question that some of you give it credit for being.
My first inclination is that I would hold the information in trust, unless compelled by law to disclose it to someone. However, I think there are a couple of other factors the social worker has to take into account.
First, I think one of Kepler's things on here, I'm pretty sure, is to argue that everyone of the age of this child has an undeveloped brain. While I don't necessarily subscribe to that, there is no doubt that the SW has to fully evaluate the capability of this child, mentally and emotionally, to even make a decision on this issue.
Second, how do we know that the disclosure to the SW isn't an effort on the part of the girl to tell someone about this problem? Maybe she doesn't feel comfortable, or is scared to tell her parents, so she has told the SW in either a conscious or subconscious attempt to get the information to her parents?
I suppose it depends on the state where this teenager resides. If it’s Michigan, since MissT lives there, a quick perusal shows that one parent must sign off on the abortion, unless it’s determined the teenager is “mature enough” to bypass that requirement, which looks like requires a judge’s order to do so. I won’t speak to what that means in Michigan, but I’m not certain the social worker alone can make that determination.
I reckon this social worker has amazing rapport with her client, or otherwise she would never have been the first and only person to know. So, with that rapport comes great power, and responsibility, over her client’s decision-making on this matter. If the client tells the social worker she doesn’t want to tell her parents, then that’s the social worker’s starting point. She will have to exhaust all avenues to determine whether her client is “mature enough” to bypass the one parent sign-off rule (again, assuming this is Michigan since MissT resides there), which may require utilizing other professionals, like a psychologist, who would also of course be bound by law to not break confidentiality unless required to do so. Again, I don’t know what Michigan requires on the matter of determining a child’s maturity in this matter.
The only thing I could think of that would require involving law enforcement, etc., is the age of the child. Looks like Michigan law considers any sexual activity by someone under 16 statutory rape, since there doesn’t appear to be a relative age law, but I could be reading that wrong. I’m certain the social worker is a mandated reporter, and utilizing her rapport with her client, she’d have to gently let the client know that there will have to be an investigation into the sexual incident. Now, the client doesn’t have to reveal anything, but the social worker would still have to gather all the relevant information the client is willing to tell her, and file a report with the proper authorities, to cover her as-. That also doesn’t have to involve the parents, unless Dad is the named perpetrator.
At the end of the day, a good therapist/social worker/psychologist rolls with the client’s wishes. Until the client says “I want to tell my parents”, the social worker rolls with bypassing that requirement until she’s exhausted all other avenues. And a good therapist wouldn’t lie to her client, so she’d tell her relatively early on that it may be possible that one parent has to eventually get involved.
Edit: If this took place in a state with relative age laws, so the sex was consensual, and the state didn’t require a parent to sign off on the abortion, if I were her therapist, I would never mention telling her to tell her parents unless she explicitly brought it up. I think rapport is paramount to a good therapeutic relationship, and if rapport is there, the client will lead the conversation to that point anyways if she wants to do so. If not, and her parents are never brought up throughout the process, then her beliefs behind that, while important, are irrelevant to the abortion conversation at hand.
