Minors have the constitutional right to privacy when it comes to receiving and using contraceptives, but many wonder whether or not minors should be able to decide if they should be put on contraceptives. Parents should and want to know what their children are up to. It is their legal and moral obligation to take care of their child, but in my opinion, when it comes to the topic of contraceptives, they have no authority in the decision. Should parents have the right to decide whether their daughter should be put on the pill? Should parents have the right to decide whether their daughter has an abortion? Under the law of thirty-eight states, if a patient under the age of eighteen wishes to terminate a pregnancy, the clinic has to inform the patient's parents before any action is taken (Kacere). Minors, although they are legally unable to make the decision of abortion on their own, should have the right to choose what they want to do with their body.  No matter what age a young woman is, if she is mature enough to engage in sexual activity, she should be able to get birth control and make the decision of what to do in the case that she becomes pregnant. This issue is important to me because this law effects me. Although I am eighteen now, when I wanted a prescription for birth control, I legally was not able to get it without asking my parents for their permission. Having that conversation with my parents was awkward and very difficult. I believe that if a minor is mature enough to have sex, then she should be able to get the medication she needs to protect herself. 

There are laws in place to protect minors and their right to choose. Title X was passed in 1970 through the Public Health Services Act. It established a nationwide service to help people receive family planning services. Although after it was established, minors did not take advantage of it because they were unsure of whether or not it was confidential or even applied to them. Minors were made aware that Title X had put two policies in place to ensure that the minors could take advantage of the program. The first policy is that the confidentiality of the minor was always kept and the second policy is to educate the parents and minor to know how important it is to be involved in the decision of contraceptives but to not push the parental involvement. Medicaid require privacy and protection be given to minors who seek help and wish to get contraception. They are required to do so, in order for both programs to receive money from the Federal Government. States with Family Planning Services receive money from Title X.  Medicaid helps women who are of a low income receive the health care support that they need (Center for Reproductive Rights). 

A study was done in 1998 by McHenry County, Illinois. The county decided to forgo federal aid in order to require parental consent before administering birth control to minors. They decided to do this because they wanted to prevent teenagers from having sex. The idea was that by forcing the minor to talk to their parents, the minor would receive some wisdom from their parents and realize that they were not mature enough to engage in sexual activity. Therefore, the rate of teenage pregnancy would lessen. But instead, the rates grew. Before 1998, 2.92% of children were born with mothers under the age of nineteen. Two years after enforcing the requirement, the amount of children born from teenage mothers raised to 3.44% (Sofer). They also included the statistics of three neighboring counties who did not require parental consent. Before the experiment in these three counties, there were 4.54% children born from teenage mothers, but after the two years their rates lowered to 4.38%. McHenry County thought that they were doing something to better the teenagers of their county, but instead they ended up hurting them (Sofer). By not giving a teenager the resources they need to keep themselves healthy, protected, and safe, they did nothing but punishing them and take away their basic human rights. 

Preventing a teenager from getting contraceptives because their parents will not allow it, or because they don't want to inform their parents of their sexual activity only puts her at risk. It is most likely not going to prevent the teenager from having sex. From refusing her contraception, she is at a higher rate for accidental pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. If a clinic refuses to give her contraceptives, she will not want to return again for checkups or any other services that can protect her (American Civil Liberties Union). 

Minors have the right to access contraceptives confidentially and access legal abortion options because of the 1972 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court Case. The Supreme Court recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects people's right to privacy, did in fact protects a woman's right to make her decision about her health and also what she chooses to do with her body (Roe v. Wade).

In 1982, the Department of Health and Human Services made a proposal to regulate a minor's access to contraceptives. This proposal required a letter of notification be sent to a minor's parents to inform them that their child would receive a prescription for birth control in the next ten days. The Department of Health and Human Services proposed this regulation to ensure that parents were involved in the decision and were aware of what their child was up to. The main push for this proposal grew out of the concern that minors would engage in sexual activity without having any knowledge about it. By requiring a minor to talk to their parents, the parents would be able to better educate their kids and make sure they were mature enough first (Brozan). The Department of Health and Human Services thought that by giving a minor birth control before talking to the parents, they would not know the health concerns or be mature enough to handle such a big step in their lives. 

The main supporters of this proposal were parents. Another worry that the parents and Department of Health and Human Services had was the fear that the medical practitioners did not have a real relationship with their patient and therefore have no write to overrule a parent and give their child birth control without informing them. If a medical practitioner has no relationship with the minor, how can they really know what is going on in the minor's life and ensure that the minor is really ready for sex? By notifying the parents, they believed it would help bridge the communication gap between the parent and child. According to Adele D. Hofmann, most teenagers do not visit a clinic until six months to a year after they become sexually active (Brozan).

 But the problem of this idea is that minors may have other people they can go to when they are concerned about becoming sexually active. If a minor does not talk to their parent about sex, it does not mean that she is not properly educated or too immature to have sex. There are many other sources that a minor can use when looking for information about the risks or even just more information about sex. There are medical professionals that can educate her on how to protect herself and ensure that she is practicing safe sex. There are also school counselors, mentors, coaches, and even older siblings or role models that a minor can contact if she has questions. It is wrong to assume that just because a child is not going to her parents about her potential sexual relationship that she is uneducated and immature. Most children just do not feel comfortable talking to their parents about sex and find other ways to become educated. There are so many ways to be informed today, for example, there are sex education classes that are required in public schools starting as early as elementary school to ensure that kids are well prepared if they decide to become sexually active. Minors should be allowed to receive contraceptives and get the medical assistance they deserve without parental consent. 

But what about if the minor does not receive contraceptives and becomes pregnant? The laws on abortion are written and governed by each state. Many states prohibit a minor from receiving an abortion without prior notification or consent from a parent or legal guardian. Twenty-one states require parental consent from at least one parent before the abortion can take place. Thirteen states just require a parent to be notified about their minor's future abortion. Only five states require a parent to give consent and be notified prior to a minor's abortion. Two states and the District of Columbia allow all minors access to abortion services without any consent or notification from a parent. The remaining eleven states either do not have a law or do not force parental consent but encourage it (Guttmacher Institute). Most of the states refer to a minor as a person under the age of eighteen, but some states allow anyone over 16 to get an abortion by consenting on their own. There is no law in which a parent can force their child to have an abortion, so why is there a law that makes it legal for a parents to tell a minor that she can not abort her child (Kacere). 

In 2013 Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a law suit because legislators were trying to change the laws regarding parental consent for abortions. The Montana state law in 2013, forced clinics to notify the parents of a patient under 16 years old before terminating the pregnancy. But the new law would require parental notification of anyone under 18 years old. Planned Parenthood in Montana decided that the only way to stop the law was to sue. They believe that this law would not encourage minors to talk to their parents about their pregnancy, it would only make them scared and pull them away from all the services that were put in place to help girls in that same situation. Another flaw in the law is that there are circumstances that may prevent children from speaking to their parents, especially if it is an unsafe home, and legislation was not taking that into account (Pieklo). 

Only sixteen out of thirty-nine states provide exceptions for minors who have fell victim to sexual and physical assault, neglect, or incest. These sixteen states require the minor to write a detailed letter of the abuse which they give to the Department of Children and Family Services. Half of the pregnant teenagers who have experienced abuse report that they were abused by a member of their family, during their pregnancy. This law is not protecting these girls like it was meant to (Kacere). Texas collected data from 1997 to 2003 that showed that many minor delayed having their abortion until they are eighteen. If an older teenager, around the age of seventeen and eight months, got pregnant, she might wait until she turns eighteen to terminate. The reason these teenage girls waited the four months to have the abortion was because they wanted to avoid having to get parental consent from their parents. The data shows that in the four years after the parental consent law went into effect, the number of abortions at age eighteen increased by six percent. The rate of second trimester abortions in this group raised by twenty-one percent (Coleman). These young women put themselves in danger by waiting until the second or even third trimester of pregnancy to abort their child so that they could get around the parental consent/ notification requirement. 

There are ways to get around the parental consent law for abortions, like being an emancipated minor or a minor may ask a judge to excuse her from getting parental consent, this is called judicial bypass (Planned Parenthood). Although there are ways to get around this law it isn't necessarily easy for the minor. Abortion clinics or even a family practitioner can help minors get a referral for an attorney so that the minor can file the judicial bypass against having to get their parents' consent. The attorney will make the process of receiving the bypass much easier, and the case will usually be heard within the next week after getting an attorney. The Judge will decide whether the minor is mature enough to make the decision on her own. 

Most of the time the court finds the minor mature enough to be able to make her own decision when it comes to aborting her child. There were 477 cases in Massachusetts from 1981 to 1985 where minors used judicial bypass. Ninety percent of those 477 girls were petitioning the court because they preferred not to speak to their parents about their abortion and seeking their parents' consent. The other ten percent of minors tried to appeal their parents' refusal to give consent.  Of the 477 minors who petitioned the court 468 were evaluated by the judge and found mature enough and granted their petition. The remaining nine minors were evaluated by the judge as immature but the judge still granted eight of the minors their petition because he found it in their best interest. The remaining minor decided to go out of state to receive an abortion (Rodman). Every one of the young women from these cases had an abortion. The process of going through the court system and hiring an attorney to prove that a minor is mature enough to have an abortion is unnecessary. What is the point of having this parental consent law if a minor can easily get out of it almost every time? It is a waste of time for not only the government and courts, but also for the minor. 

Those who push for parental consent laws are parents. Parents believe that if their child needs permission to get their ears pierced or take aspirin at school, then they should definitely need their permission to abort their child.  The parents want their children to talk to them and come to them with these kinds of topics, but the truth is some minors just don't feel comfortable talking to their parents about sex. But minors can talk to their family practitioners, who can help them but they are not allowed to perform an abortion without the permission from the parent(s) (Rodman).

 Because it is not difficult for a minor to get around the parental consent laws, suggestions have been made to make it harder for minors to get abortions without parental consent or notification. (Rodman). The suggestions are that minors must be evaluated by a mental health professional or specialist and found mentally sound before any plans for abortion are discussed. Another suggestion is that nurses, social workers, or psychologist should make sure that the minor is completely aware of all alternatives and options they have, as well as the risks and outcomes. 

Another issue regarding the topic of minors and their decisions for abortions. "The decision about contraceptives and abortions is urgent because many teenagers engage in sexual activity whether or not they have access to medical contraceptives" (Rodman). Many teenagers engage in sexual activity without contraception, and fifty percent of pregnancies among teenagers occur in the first six months after they initiate sexual activity for the first time. The hope is that teenagers will realize that if they are going to be sexually active they need to prevent pregnancy but also to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and infections. This is why teenagers should be able to make the decision of getting contraceptives without their parents' permission. The main thing stopping young girls from talking to their parents about receiving contraceptives is because they are afraid of what their parents will say and the fear of disappointing them. 

The longer minors wait to get an abortion the less safe the procedure is, therefore requiring a minor to seek parental permission before having an abortion can be harmful to the minor. The process of having to notify the parents, get consent or a judicial bypass only extends the abortion process and ultimately makes the abortion less safe because of the amount of time it takes to complete all these requirements. It is not fair for the minor to have to jump through all those hoops to be given something that is their basic human right. Many minors fear talking to their parents about receiving contraceptives, so one can imagine how difficult the conversation would be for a minor to tell her parents that she got pregnant from unprotected sex and need their permission to terminate the pregnancy. The topic of sexual activity, abortion, and contraceptives are the most sensitive and difficult to discuss between parents and their children (Rodman). Many minors who are on contraceptives say that if they were forced to talk to their parents about receiving their contraception before receiving it, they would be too uncomfortable to do so and therefore would not be on it. 

By forbidding a minor to have an abortion without her parents' consent, the clinics are forcing the minor to figure out what she is going to do on her own. Sexual and reproductive programs should support the minors in this process. By turning these young girls away because they can't tell their parents, will not encourage them to talk to them. It will honestly make the conversation harder because it causes girls to question whether or not her parents will turn her away just like the clinic did (Kacere). Instead of talking to her parents, she may resort to a dangerous and illegal option. Many minors, once turned away from an abortion clinic, become frightened and feel that there is no one out there who can help them. This is not okay. If the goal of the parental consent laws is to "protect" the minors and keep them safe why does it force minors into a corner and cause a greater risk for complicated procedures and possibly issues at home (Kacere). Another negative outcome of this law is that it raises the birthrate by deterring minors from having an abortion and the emotional and physical harm to these young girls (Ellertson). 

Teenage girls were asked by The Learning Network of the New York Times, how they felt about the required prescription to get birth control and also if they thought birth control and the morning after pill should be available over the counter. Many wrote back saying they believed that as young women, if they are trying to have safe sex, they shouldn't have to go to a doctor for a prescription (Gonchar).  The majority of these women wrote back saying that if condoms were on the shelf in the grocery store and drug store, then why can't birth control pills be too? A few women wrote back and said that if the girl was not ready to talk to her parents about being put on the pill, then she was not ready to start a sexual relationship. But most disagreed with her statement. These responses provided proof that the people directly effected by this law, female minors, believe that they should be able to receive contraceptives on their own. And if men are able to buy condoms on a shelf in a drug store at any age, why can girls not receive contraceptives on their own? It is unfair for men to be able to buy condoms, which are only 85-90% effective, at any age without parental consent, but woman under the age of eighteen cannot buy birth control over the counter even though it is 91-99% effective?

From researching the topic of parental consent on contraceptives I learned the effects of not allowing a girl birth control or the option of an abortion. All parents want to do is protect their children the best they can but what parents do not see is that their children may not be comfortable talking to them about the topic of sex but, the fact of matter is: young girls should be allowed to receive the medical assistance that they deserve. If they are responsible enough to seek out a physician for contraceptives, they should be allowed to have it. The same should go for abortion: a minor should be able to terminate a pregnancy if she feels she cannot carry and take care of the child. It is a woman's basic human right to choose what she wants to do with her body. Whether the parents feel that it goes against their religious, political or social beliefs, their child may have different beliefs. Parents should not be allowed to control the decision of what their daughter decides to do with her body. At the end of the day refusing to support their daughter's decision will affect the rest of her life. Enforcing this law, we are putting the teenage generation in a position in which some may have to choose between family relationships or their health. Although minors are not legal adults, when it comes to the topic of birth control and abortion. Whether a minor decides to have sex is her decision. It is her body, her welfare, her future, and her life. And if she does decide she wants to have sex and would like to get a prescription for birth control she should be able to. If the minor becomes pregnant and is responsible enough to know that she cannot care for this child and wants to get an abortion, she should be allowed to do so. This barrier between teenage girls and their access to reproductive health care needs to be destroyed once and for all. 

