Typically, such a law requires the abortionist to notify one or both parents of an unemancipated minor daughter prior to an abortion. A "minor daughter" being under 18 and living at home. Under most state laws this only requires notification. In some states it also requires consent.

The court has also required a "judicial bypass." This means that if the girl feels that she may be abused by her parents when they find out, she may go to a judge and ask for the court’s approval to abort without parental notification.

Yes, and because of this, these laws are often paired with a waiting period. This would be a required 24 or 48 hour waiting period after she has been examined and the abortion agreed upon. Sometimes such a law is paired with parental notification. In some states these laws requiring a waiting period have been passed standing alone.

With few exceptions, cases that have gone to judges who have given blanket approval for abortion.

The abortion industry tells us at least three-fourths. Experience by pro-lifers has been about one-third. This is supported by a study where 37% told the mother and 26% told the father.

Minor Women Obtaining Abortions:
A Study of Par. Notif. in a Metro. Area, F. Clary,
Am J. Pub H. Mar. 1982, Vol. 72, No. 3, P. 283

The main reason is embarrassment, shame and reluctance to hurt their parents. There’s also a certain element of "My mom would just die!," and "my dad would kill me." In fact, such retaliation rarely happens. "The girls go through this alone because they don’t want to shatter the good girl image their parents have of them."

T. Welsh, Fam. Plan. Persp. Dec. ’83

And under 18 years? What does she think of you, her parents? Should she tell you? Sadly, few girls want to. They think you’ll explode, condemn, reject, feel ashamed. She doesn’t want to hurt you. But she is alone, frightened, defiant, worried. Yes, but still a young girl who desperately needs your love and help.

The Supreme Court ruling assures her that she can have her baby killed, can internalize all of the psychic trauma, the loneliness, the bitterness, and never know that . . .

If she had told you — Yes, you might have "exploded" initially. But then, with rare exceptions, you would have shared your tears and given her the help, support, and love she so desperately needed. To her surprise, you would not condemn, but offer all the love, help, and understanding you could in this time of trial.

In my 25 years of counseling, I have found that when a girl does come to her parents and receives the help they can offer, it becomes the occasion of a real growth in maturity, self-confidence, and ability to love by the girl. She faces her responsibility and stands tall. The family bond is strengthened by the sharing of the burden.

But no, now the tragic Supreme Court Decision can guarantee that she’ll never know that you really love her and would have helped her. Thanks to them, she can have her baby killed in secret and become disillusioned, embittered, hardened.

In some small states, like Massachusetts, the answer is confused because some teenagers cross into neighboring states for abortions. In a much larger state like Minnesota where such travel is almost prohibitive, the record is very clear.

The State of Minnesota had such a law in place since 1981. Then the law was challenged in court and enjoined (suspended) in March 1986. The Supreme Court later ruled that the law was constitutional, and it was reimposed.

In that state there were excellent records kept for several years with the law in place, several more without the law, and then again with the law. Results were very clear.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, the number of abortions to unemancipated minors dropped, and by a figure of 34%. Correspondingly, the number of live births to this group increased. The unexpected result was that the number of pregnancies in this age group to unmarried girls decreased by 27%.

Not at all. In fact, they brought the lawsuit which enjoined the law. Planned Parenthood has constantly been telling the world that it wants to reduce teen pregnancies. Here was an outstanding example of an effective method, and Planned Parenthood showed its true stripes. It went to court to stop the only major successful program that limited teen pregnancies. So much for Planned Parenthood’s claims that it wants to reduce teen pregnancies.

The Becky Bell case ranks among the most totally misrepresented happenings in the history of the abortion conflict. Let’s recall her story.

Becky Bell is the now-famous 17-year-old Indianapolis girl who died September 16, 1988. Her death has been portrayed by pro-abortion groups all over the country as an example of why parental notification and consent laws are undesirable. The story as told by her parents and others is that she had an illegal induced abortion, became infected, developed pneumonia, and died from the infection. Indiana has a parental consent law that is being enforced. Her parents state that if she could have gotten a legal abortion in Indiana without her parents’ knowledge, she would be alive today.

The fact is that Becky never had an induced abortion. She died from massive pneumonia and septic shock.

Becky had been involved sexually with a high school dropout as long as one year before her death. He also introduced her to drugs. Sometime in late 1987 or early 1988, her mother learned through a family friend that Becky might be pregnant, and immediately took her to Planned Parenthood where the tests proved negative. Soon after this, her parents also admitted her to the hospital for an almost two-month detoxification program.

After returning home, she apparently became pregnant in mid-May. This time, instead of telling her parents, she told only her best girl friend, Heather Clark, who accompanied her to Planned Parenthood. She was pregnant this time and was told about the Indiana consent law. According to the oft-repeated story of her friend Heather, during the four months of her pregnancy, Becky wavered about what to do. She talked of going to Kentucky for an abortion, or running away to California, having the baby, and placing the child for adoption.

But the key part of Becky’s sad story is what happened the last six days of her life. She attended a drug party on a Saturday night, six days before she died. This is listed in the coroner’s report. It also details the fact that Becky told her mother that she thought someone had put speed or cocaine in her drink. It is known that she stayed in her room all of the following day, Sunday, telling her parents that she had flu.

Becky apparently began hemorrhaging five days later — Friday morning — the day she died. Her mother recalls that she said earlier that day, "Mommy, I started," with a smile, which she thought was odd because Becky usually dreaded the cramps associated with her period. After the bleeding started, Becky, who had resisted going to the doctor, now agreed to seek medical help. Her father took her to the hospital that afternoon. She died that night.

Heather Clark flatly insists that Becky did not attempt to abort. She has stated that Becky talked about getting a legal abortion in Kentucky right up until the day she died. (Heather believes Becky had a miscarriage.) Furthermore, after Becky’s death, her mother found a list of abortion clinics and adoption agencies in her daughter’s purse. Also, Heather Clark has stated that the day before Becky died, "Becky asked me for the phone number of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Louisville."

Your authors have a copy of the autopsy report. It lists "manner of death" as "undetermined." It then lists "cause of death" as "septic abortion with pneumonia." Remember, in medical reports, miscarriages are referred to as "abortions" or "spontaneous abortions." This is what has caused the confusion as, by carefully reading the autopsy report, it is obvious that the primary cause of death was fulminating, cavitating pneumonia and sepsis, along with evidence of a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage). The autopsy report reads as follows:

Let us translate. That she was pregnant is obvious. The cervix in a 17-year-old’s first pregnancy would have to be stretched open by an abortionist, causing some tearing of the lining of that cervix, even by the most gentle dilation. If a trained abortionist had performed an abortion, there would have been evidence of scraping, trauma, scratching, and tearing. Had an untrained person attempted an abortion, there would have been much more damage to the cervix and uterus. To have a cervix "dilated uniformly without evidence of mucosal or submucosal injury" totally rules out the use of any instrumentation; rather, it tells any physician that this was a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), not an induced abortion.

The description of what "extrudes" from the "cervical os" (cervical opening) is the normal leftover from a nearly completed miscarriage. The report then further states that the lower third of the uterus was "without obvious evidence of instrumentation." The report describes the remaining tissue in the upper two-thirds as exactly what one would expect from a miscarriage. Then the report speaks of the serosa, which is the outer covering of the womb, which is described as "smooth, glistening and without exudate." Exudate would be pus or oozing if the organ was infected. If this had been a case of septic abortion, this tissue would be shaggy and discolored (not "smooth, glistening and without exudate"). Further, the report stated, "there are no areas of perforation or pus." Finally, there are "no injuries of the vagina." Clearly she did not have an induced abortion.

The autopsy report of the lungs and pleural (chest) cavities take up over half a page of single-spaced reporting, and describe the near total destruction of t ose organs by infection.

Dr. Nathanson, who performed thousands of abortions before he completely reversed his position and became a pro-lifer, agrees that "there is no evidence for an induced abortion at all." He states that the cause of death was obviously overwhelming pneumonia unrelated to the miscarriage, with no evidence of significant infection inside or outside of the uterus.

The report details that the germ that killed Becky (streptococcus pneumoniae) is a common pneumonia germ unlikely to originate from a contaminated abortion procedure.

Conclusion