Judicial Bypass for Minors Seeking Abortion Is Not Enough →
Thirty-seven states currently require minors obtain parental consent or notification before getting a safe, legal abortion. For many who come from abusive homes or other situations in which telling their parents would pose a threat to their safety and wellbeing, this is impossible.
States have allowed minors alternatives to parental notification/consent by offering judicial bypass, in which the pregnant person must schedule a hearing with a judge and attorney to determine if they are “mature” enough to make their own decisions about their body.
For some, this is still impossible. Courthouse hours may only be during school hours, for example, for a minor who is unable to miss class without risking their anonymity and safety. Others fear their anonymity will be compromised by the hearing itself, especially in small towns. In one case described in the linked PDF, a minor found that her hearing would be conducted by her former Sunday school teacher.
Others still are denied their legal right to abortion, simply because the judge finds it distasteful or against their own beliefs. It is common in some states for minors to travel out of state because local judges refuse to hold the hearings, or court personnel are found to be incompetent or deliberately unhelpful.
A judge in Toledo, Ohio denied permission to a 17 ½-year-old woman, an “A” student who planned to attend college, and who testified she was not financially or emotionally prepared to take on both college and motherhood at the same time, stating that the girl had “not had enough hard knocks in her life.”
In Louisiana, a judge denied a 15-year-old’s bypass petition “after asking her a series of inappropriate questions including what the minor would say to the fetus about her decision.” Her request was granted only after a rehearing by six appellate court judges.
Parental notification/consent and court hearings delay the abortion by a minimum of three days, raising the medical risks posed by abortion. The longer the pregnancy continues, the harder it is to find a clinic that will perform an abortion.
A Montgomery, Alabama teenager who sought a judicial bypass petition to obtain an abortion without her mother’s consent was granted the petition after it was too late to get an abortion in Montgomery County. The only clinic that could perform the abortion in the state was in Birmingham. Because the court order was only valid in Montgomery County, the minor had to repeat the court process, which caused another week to pass before she was able to terminate pregnancy. As a result of the delay, the procedure was riskier and more costly than it would have been when she first sought the abortion.
Parental notification and consent laws are dangerous in multiple ways. If a minor feels safe and comfortable telling their parents about their choice, they will do so. Even without such laws, six out of ten minors tell at least one parent. It is not the government’s place to force minors to share such an intimate and personal decision with their guardians.
