Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114995

Alissa Perrucci, PhD, MPH, California Family Health Council, 2550 Ninth Street, Suite 110, Berkeley, CA 94710-2554, 415.486.0412, perruccia@cfhc.org

The majority of US states have laws that mandate parental involvement in a minor's decision to have an abortion. These laws take the form of one-parent and two-parent written consent and parental notification. Laws that mandate parental involvement are grounded in assumptions about minors' decision-making capacity and the impact of abortion on adolescent mental health. In this paper, a brief history of legislation on parental involvement laws in the context of abortion will be presented and compared to research on adolescent decision-making and coping. Proposed legislation for mandatory parental involvement in family planning decision-making will also be discussed, accompanied by recent research on the impact of loss of confidential services on minors' behavior. Discrepancies between the enacted legislation (in the case of abortion decisions) and proposed legislation (in the case of family planning decisions) and extant research call into question whether such legislation is evidence-based. Finally, a review of the concept and application of informed consent in reproductive health decision-making will be evaluated and presented as an alternative to parental involvement laws.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. List two aims of legislation that mandates parental involvement in a minor’s abortion decision.
• 2. Illustrate the discrepancy between the stated purposes of mandatory parental involvement and research on its effects.
• 3. Evaluate the informed consent process in reproductive health decision making and its potential as an alternative to mandating parental involvement.

Keywords: Abortion, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation