Life Issues / Family Ethics Political Action Committee of Southwest Washington 

Parental Notification

 

House Bill 1321 (Establishing parental notification requirements for abortion.):

Introduced by Rep. John Ahern on January 17, 2007, to require a physician to notify at least one parent before performing an abortion on a woman that is under 18 years of age. If the woman does not want the notification, the superior court of the residence county shall make the determination on whether the abortion may continue. The bill defines the criteria on which the court shall make the determination. The bill contains an emergency clause, which causes it to take effect immediately.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49231

 

From Family Research Council:
Parental Consent Laws Give Girls Pregnant Pause

As the old adage goes, knowing is half the battle. That may also ring true in the parental notification debate. New research suggests that states with abortion notification and consent laws on the books actually have lower rates of sexually transmitted diseases. With data collected from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, professors Jonathan Klick of Florida State University and Thomas Stratmann of George Mason University found that teen gonorrhea rates decreased by 20 percent among Hispanics and 12 percent among white girls in states with parental consent laws. The professors conclude that young women are less likely to engage in risky sexual activity if their parents will ultimately be informed of their pregnancies. In the U.S., 44 states have adopted parental notification or consent laws but in nine of those states the provisions have either been blocked by the courts or unenforced. As Congress seeks to unite on "popular" legislation, we urge them to reconsider an issue with 80 percent approval among Americans--tighter parental notification laws like the Child Custody Protection Act.


Additional Resources
FSU study: Abortion notification, consent laws reduce risky teen sex