|  | Family Health | Teen Health

Laws on Abortion & Parental Notification

Abortion is a hot topic, and teenage abortion is an even hotter topic. Some states have enacted laws requiring parental consent before performing an abortion on a teenager. In other states, parents must be notified before the girl can have an abortion, though their consent is not required. Some states do not have either requirement, and permit a doctor to consent to the abortion instead of the teenager's parent.

  1. Parental Consent

    • As of September of 2010, the states that required parental consent for an abortion were Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Some of these states require that both parents give consent, while others require only one parent to consent.

    Parental Notification

    • As of September of 2010, the states that required parental notification before an abortion could be performed were Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Some of these states require both parental notification and parental consent. A few of these states allow doctors to bypass the parental notification requirement.

    None

    • As of September of 2010, the states that did not require parental consent or notification before a teenager could have an abortion were Alaska, California, Connecticut, Washington, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Teen Health - Related Articles