Research Says Parental Involvement Laws Don’t Limit Abortions

Parental involvement laws are unconstitutional and don't even work.

We all know that parent involvement laws (laws that are designed to decrease abortion rates by requiring minors to get parental permission or notify their parents before getting an abortion) are unconstitutional. A recent review of research from the Guttmacher Institutute shows us that the laws hardly even impact abortion rates. In fact, many of the laws simply create barriers for minors trying to get abortions without consulting their parents, resulting in more late-term abortions.

From the article:

"Previous Guttmacher research found that 60% of minors who have an abortion talk to their parents about their pregnancy and desire to have an abortion. However, many among the 40% whose parents do not know about their pregnancy report they would experience physical violence or abuse if their parents knew. For these teens, mandating parental involvement can have serious and damaging consequences."


Frightening. There are other problems with the laws, too. According to the article the laws in one state led to an increase in teen birthrates, because many minors couldn’t travel out of state to access abortion where the laws don’t exist.

Not surprisingly, what actually lowers birthrates and abortions among minors is sex education and access to contraceptives. The Guttmacher article also mentions the old yet relevant argument that:

 

"Even making abortion illegal does not reduce the abortion rate, it only makes it more difficult to obtain and less safe. According to worldwide abortion research, the lowest abortion rates are in Western Europe, where contraceptive services and use are widespread, and safe abortion is easily accessible and legal under broad grounds. By contrast, Africa, Asia and Latin America have the highest abortion rates, even though abortion is generally restricted and often unsafe."


There’s so much evidence disproving anti-abortion legislation, it’s difficult to believe lawmakers are still attempting these types of laws. Not only are the laws unconstitutional, they do the exact opposite of what they’ve been implemented to do. It’s time we scrapped them.