by Diana Philip

No one wants to see a teenager be trapped by poverty, abuse, or neglect. Yet, laws concerning the rights of pregnant minors to access certain medical care do just that.

Since the late 1970s, state legislatures have been passing state "parental involvement" laws, which mandate that a parent or legal guardian be notified of or give consent for a pregnant minor's decision to seek an abortion. Texas has one of the most recent laws, now five years old, and as of June 5, 2005, its law changed from requiring notification to mandating consent. Congress is now in the process of creating a nationwide parental notification law through the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA). CIANA also would make it illegal for anyone to help a teen obtain an abortion in another state without satisfying her home state's law. Supporters of this bill generally think such a law will protect children. However, before the Senate votes on CIANA or similar legislation, lawmakers should carefully consider the damage parental involvement laws have done to pregnant youth in Texas.

Mandated notification by Texas clinics did not result in an increase of actual parental involvement in teenagers' decisions regarding abortion, as the law intended. Instead, the state's parental notification law targeted youth whom some lawmakers claim they did not intend to harm. Before the law's enactment in January 2000, Texas abortion providers reported that 80-95 percent of minors involved a parent in the decision to terminate a pregnancy. The ones who did not had compelling reasons. For instance, some parents physically abused, abandoned, or disowned their daughters when they found out they were pregnant. These youth understood that a family that is unable to communicate due to a significant degree of dysfunction, separation, and/or abuse is unlikely to respond appropriately during such an important life decision.