Anonymous asked:

Please answer this question for me. Can a 15 year old girl go get an abortion in New Jersey without her parents knowing? Could she pay out of pocket? Would there be a difference between the operation and the pill? What are the laws surrounding this?

Good questions! There are parental notification and consent laws in many states for minors seeking abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which reviews abortion policies and effects in the US and internationally, there is a parental notification law in New Jersey - however, due to a court order, the policy is not in effect. So, there is no enforced law requiring parents to be involved in a minor’s abortion in New Jersey.

There are 24 providers in New Jersey that I know of, so there may be differing policies depending on the clinic. I do know that Planned Parenthood accepts cash, and for the most part will not turn you away due to your inability to pay. They may work out a payment plan, or you can ask if they have a fund.

The difference between surgical abortion and the abortion pill (not to be confused with emergency contraception/Plan B) is explained in these posts: Abortion Procedures. There, you can find descriptions of how the abortion pill works, descriptions of the five/six kinds of surgical abortion, and a comparison of medication abortion vs. surgical abortion.

For more information on abortion laws in the US, the Guttmacher Institute is an amazing resource. Their State Center takes you to specific state policies (look for “State Policies in Brief” once you click on your state), but I’d encourage you to spend some time exploring their site to see what else you can learn!

What would a Romney Victory Mean for Reproductive Rights? →

With Election Day now upon us, it’s worth weighing the impacts of a Mitt Romney win on reproductive rights and healthcare. In general, Romney seems likely to cater to the extreme anti-choice faction of his party. 

Here’s a sneak preview of possible scenarios:

1. The Supreme Court gets more anti-choice. All of the abortion-related decisions on the court in recent history have been a 5-4 (or 4-5) split, with Justice Anthony Kennedy as the swing vote. The court has four justices in their 70s right now, which means that the next president could have one or more opportunities to appoint new members. Romney has made it clear that he would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, and would appoint federal judges and Supreme Court justices that feel that way, too. Even if those appointees don’t get to throw out Roe (at least, not right away), they could still make important decisions on state laws currently caught up in the court system, like laws requiring a sonogram before an abortion and other laws that ban abortions after 20 weeks. A Supreme Court ruling upholding those laws could set new precedents for the burdens states are allowed to impose on women seeking an abortion.
2. Planned Parenthood loses federal funding. One of the first things a new president gets to do is write a budget, and Romney has pledged to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood providers immediately. “It will not be part of my budget,” he has said. And it’s not just Planned Parenthood. A Romney-Ryan administration would take away Title X family planning funds from any healthcare provider that also provides abortions.
3. Healthcare reform gets overturned. Romney says he wants to toss out “Obamacare”—except for the parts that people like, such as making it illegal to deny coverage to someone because of a preexisting condition. The problem is, the parts Romney doesn’t like are required to make the other parts work. There are a lot of provisions in healthcare reform that are particularly helpful for women. For one, I’ve known women who were told that heavy periods or cramps qualified as a “pre-existing condition,” which the reform bill would outlaw. More broadly, under Obamacare, insurance companies can no longer charge you more just because you’re a woman—a practice known as “gender rating.” Birth control and other preventative care are now available without a co-payment. You can stay on your parents’ healthcare until you’re 26, which is particularly useful for women, who go to the doctor more often than men.
4. There’s no more co-pay-free birth control. Even if Romney doesn’t succeed in overturning healthcare reform, he has singled out the requirement that insurers cover contraception as an “assault on religion” that “will end” if he becomes president. Paul Ryan has promised that the birth control mandate “will be gone” on “day one” of their administration.
5. There are stricter limits on federal funding for abortions. Last year, GOP House members—including Paul Ryan—tried to pass a law that would have redefined rape as only including “forcible rape”—which would likely exclude statutory rape and possibly date/drugged/drunk rape. This is important, because federal laws dealing with the use of government funds for abortions have typically included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act also includes other new limits, like barring tax credits for employers who choose to offer a health plan that covers abortion and making it illegal to use your own tax-exempt health savings account to pay for an abortion.
6. The Global Gag Rule returns. Romney has said he will reinstate this rule, also known as the “Mexico City Policy,” that bars any US-funded organization working abroad not only from providing abortions, but from offering referrals or even discussing abortion as an option.
7. Parental consent laws are federalized. In 2005, 2007, and 2011, Paul Ryan cosponsored the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, a bill that would make it illegal to take a minor to another state to avoid parental notification and consent laws for an abortion in her home state. Under the bill, a minor’s parents must be notified in writing at least 24 hours before she can have an abortion.
    
8. Hospitals are allowed to deny women access to abortion, even if their lives are in danger. Under current law, any hospital accepting Medicare or Medicaid and affiliated with a religious institution that refuses to provide abortion care under any circumstance is legally required to transfer a woman who needs a live-saving abortion to a hospital that will. But last year, the House passed another bill that Ryan cosponsored, the Protect Life Act, which, if passed, would allow hospitals to refuse to “participate in” or “provide referrals” for abortions.

(Source: stfuprolifers)

Judicial Bypass for Minors

There are 37 states that currently enforce parental notification or consent laws - find out here if yours is one, or call your local Planned Parenthood. To avoid having to notify or obtain consent from parents or guardians, you must get a judicial bypass, meaning a judge will decide if you can get an abortion. Here are a few resources I’ve found on judicial bypass for minors seeking a safe, legal abortion without parental notification or consent.

Getting a judicial bypass does not cost anything, and you are entitled to a court-appointed lawyer.

• I found a lawyer in Ohio, Christine Baker, who offers free, confidential assistance.
• Texas has a program called Jane’s Due Process that ensures legal representation for pregnant minors.
• The Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia works through the court system to protect reproductive rights and other issues. You can call them for help finding a lawyer.
• Contact your state’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They may have a program that provides legal representation, or give referrals to lawyers.
• Contact the National Abortion Federation’s hotline (1-800-772-9100) for information and referrals in your state.
• Search your local Planned Parenthood’s website (find it here) for information on judicial bypass in your state. They may have a hotline or references for someone who can represent you.
• Be prepared to go out of your county, or even out of your state. Some judges will refuse to handle judicial bypass petitions, or to even hear the proceedings. If you need help getting to a court that will hear your petition, check out or contact the Abortion Assistance Blog or your state’s abortion fund.

I’ll keep updating this post, so any more information is much appreciated.

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.

New issue for the Abortion Assistance Blog

35 states currently enforce parental consent or notification laws for minors seeking abortion. For many, this is dangerous or impossible. If you or someone you know have references to lawyers that will provide free/low-cost services for minors looking to get a judicial bypass, or know of a judge that will hear the proceedings (many conservative judges will not), please message AAB.

Some minors may even have to travel out of state to get a court hearing, and as of now I’m assuming unless otherwise indicated, transportation offers also apply to courthouses.

I volunteered at my city’s reproductive health clinic for a year, and these are the four (most important) things I learned

fuguestasis:

[Content includes descriptions of anti-choice verbal abuse and harassment in #1, as well as domestic/sexual violence in #2]

1. Clinic “”protesters”” are not exercising their 1st amendment rights. They’re engaging in emotional terrorism, slander, and harassment. Their goal is to inflict damage. Clinic employees, interns, and volunteers who are harassed sometimes daily should be able to take out restraining orders against them. They should be able to take out restraining orders on whole organizations, ideally, as well as individuals. Massachusetts is lucky enough to have a sort of legally-mandated “buffer zone;” protesters need to stay a certain number of feet away from the clinic’s door, but they get up in your face as you walk down the street and they are more than happy to yell to you right up until you make it inside.
2. “Parental notification” or “parental consent” laws are bullshit. Nobody under the age of 18 gets an abortion without telling their parent(s) unless there is a damn fucking good reason. Minors with abusive parents who might withhold medical treatment as “leverage,” minors who were actually knocked-up by their legal guardian in the first place, minors who aren’t in contact with their parents (and who have reason to fear violence or abuse if they DO get back in touch), and minors with anti-choice parents who would medically/reproductively abuse their child by forcing them to carry a pregnancy to term—all of these people are the ones who get hurt by these laws. The white, middle-class, kindly, heterosexual, cis parents with the wayward daughter who runs off and gets an abortion before her parents have a chance to tell her about her options? The ones lawmakers are constantly referencing when they pass these kinds of bills?? The ones who “have the right to know”??? They know. If they have shown themselves to be safe people, their kid will come to them. Few people make this decision lightly. Very few people will actually pass up the chance to be supported in this by the non-abusive people in their lives (especially their fucking parents).
3. Many reproductive-health-focused organization contribute directly to trans healthcare disparities. I volunteered at the clinic for a year. I had to sign each patient in individually, and I would talk with them before they got called in my a doctor or nurse. I never saw one person who didn’t at least pass as cis (including “passing” as cis on paper, too). There probably were individual cis-passing trans people who came, who were misgendered, and who did not receive the full scope of treatment/education/respect that their cis counterparts did. But trans people—men, women, and people who are both/neither—are disproportionately under-represented and under-served at the expense of our health as a community.
4. Abortion is not our only fight. Abortion access is so, so important. But the vast majority of reproductive health organizations/clinics recognize that prevention, education, and empowerment are vital. Abortion is not its own isolated example of a single privilege/oppression dichotomy. Instead, it’s one crucial piece of an over-arching, multi-focused conversation about sexual and domestic violence, misogyny, sexual health, trans rights, youth and childrens’ rights, white supremacy, ableism, nationalism, and capitalism. Losing this focus obscures the broader picture and pushes aside very goals we should ultimately be working in service of.

(Source: poorlifechoicesblog, via fuckyeahsexeducation)