U

sually you can get around telling your parents."(ⁱ)

This is the message that appears prominently on the Web site of the Coalition for Positive Sexuality (CPS), a non-profit, activist organization that purports to "provide teens with candid sex education materials."(ⁱⁱ) The topic in question isn't birth control. It's not even sex. Rather, the secret CPS is encouraging teens - and even younger children - to keep is abortion.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2004, 17.4 percent of all legal abortions in the United States were performed on women and girls 19 years of age and younger.(ⁱⁱⁱ) And for many of these girls, their parents never knew.

The reason is something called parental notification laws - or, rather, the lack thereof. Legally speaking, parental involvement in a minor-aged child's decision to have an abortion can take two forms: parental consent and parental notification. Parental consent laws require that teenagers - usually under the age of 18 - get permission from a parent before having an abortion. Parental notification laws require that a parent be notified but not give permission.

It sounds unthinkable that any medical professional would perform a surgical procedure on a minor without her parents' knowledge. Indeed, doctors will tell you that, except in cases of dire emergency and only with hospital or other administrative permission, they will not administer any medical treatment to a minor at all without parental or guardian consent. Any medical treatment, that is, except treatment that relates to a child's sexual health.

Minors in the USA can undergo abortion without parents’ knowledge.

While laws prohibit physicians from treating minors without parental consent in the vast majority of cases, these legal prohibitions often vaporize when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, and, as we will see, abortions.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that has performed extensive research and policy analysis in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, only 35 states currently require any form of parental involvement in a child's decision to undergo an abortion.(^iv) Of these 35 states, 22 require parental consent (and only two of these require consent from both parents); 11 require only parental notification (with only one of these requiring notification of both parents), and only two require both parental consent and notification.(^v)

This means that in 15 states, a minor can undergo an abortion without the knowledge of her parents or guardian.

The philosophy behind this parental non-involvement is the underlying belief that somehow parents are hazardous to their children's health. For example, consider the Web site of the National Abortion Federation, a professional association of abortion providers in the U.S. and Canada, whose mission is "to ensure safe, legal, and accessible abortion care to promote health and justice for women."(^vi)

This organization, which claims to provide "unbiased information"(^vii) to women, lists parental involvement laws as one of the most common "direct threats to abortion rights and access."(^viii) The site goes on to say that "[p]arental involvement bills pose a serious threat to the health of young women, and restrictive abortion laws may worsen family communication rather than promote it."(^ix)

Should children make life-or-death decisions?

Unfortunately, it's not only activist organizations that take this view. All too often, state courts do as well. For example, in some states that have passed parental consent or notification laws, courts have enjoined these laws, hence, gutting them of their effect. Furthermore, while in theory 35 states require either parental consent or notification, in practice, it is possible for a minor in any state to get an abortion without parental knowledge or consent. The reason is that every one of the 35 states with parental involvement laws has a "judicial bypass procedure," which, in essence, lets a court take the place of a parent in providing consent for an abortion.(^x)

What's more, in many of the 35 states requiring parental involvement, the law allows for exceptions in certain instances. In 29 of the states, minors may get an abortion without parental knowledge or consent if the case is "a medical emergency;" and in 14 of the states, minors can have a parent-free abortion "in cases of abuse, assault, incest or neglect."(^xi)

If a child needs to have a tooth pulled, a parent or guardian must consent. If a young person needs aspirin from a school nurse, the nurse can give it only with the permission of a parent or a guardian. Yet, if a minor decides to have an abortion - a major surgical procedure with potentially serious physical, emotional, and psychological risks and side effects - parents are all too often left out of the equation.

Despite the claims of organizations like the Coalition for Positive Sexuality and the National Abortion Federation, parents are not the greatest danger to a child's health and well-being. Rather, the greater risk is the philosophy that encourages children to make life and death decisions without consulting those whom God has placed over them for their protection.

It's time to bring parents back into the lives of their children. This is literally an issue of life and death, and for some girls, a parent's involvement may prove their only protection against the greatest heartbreak of their lives.

 

---

i Coalition for Positive Sexuality. Parental Consent. Available from http://www.positive.org/Resources/consent.html. Accessed 10 January 2008.

ii Coalition for Positive Sexuality. Available from http://www.positive.org/Resources/consent.html. Accessed 10 January 2008.

iii Abortion Surveillance - United States, 2004. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 23 November 2007. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5609a1.htm. Accessed 10 January 2008.

iv "Parental Involvement in Minors' Abortions." Guttmacher Institute. 1 January 2008. Available from http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_PIMA.pdf. Accessed 10 January 2008.

v Ibid.

vi National Abortion Federation. About Us: Mission. Available from http://www.prochoice.org/about_naf/mission.html. Accessed 10 January 2008.

vii Ibid. About Us. Available from http://www.prochoice.org/about_naf/index.html. Accessed 10 January 2008.

viii Ibid. Threats to Abortion Rights. Available from http://www.prochoice.org/policy/states/states_threats.html. Accessed 10 January 2008.

ix Ibid. Threats to Abortion Rights: Parental Involvement Bills. Available from http://www.prochoice.org/policy/states/parental_involvement.html. Accessed 10 January 2008.

x "Parental Involvement in Minors' Abortions." Guttmacher Institute. 1 January 2008. Available from http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_PIMA.pdf. Accessed 10 January 2008.

xi Ibid.