Young people explore their sexuality as a natural part of achieving sexual maturity, and becoming a sexually healthy adult is an important part of adolescent development. Young people should have every opportunity to act responsibly with regards to their sexual behavior, including access to comprehensive sexuality education and confidential, comprehensive reproductive health care.
Lack of Confidential Services Harms Young People
- Confidential access to reproductive health care is crucial for teens' health and safety. Studies show that teenagers would delay or avoid seeking family planning services if parental consent or notification were required, but they would not stop sexual activity.1 Young people would avoid services that would help them prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. By doing this, teens put their health, future fertility, and even lives in danger.
- Requiring parental consent or notification would do nothing to curb the rates of unintended pregnancies, abortion, and STIs. Eighty-eight percent of teen pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended and half end in an abortion – and three million teens acquire an STI each year. Limiting access to reproductive health services will only increase these already staggering rates.2
- Mandates that require parental notification or consent for contraceptives are misguided and will do nothing to improve the health and lives of adolescents.
Lack of Confidential Services Will Not Change Teens' Behavior
- The vast majority of teens seeking services are already sexually active. On average, a young person is sexually active for 14 months prior to seeking family planning services. A parental consent or notification requirement will only cause teens to further delay obtaining appropriate medical care.3
- Requiring mandatory parental involvement does not improve family communication. A mandatory parental involvement requirement puts vulnerable teens at risk who are unable to talk to their parents because of fear of violence or abuse. For a young girl who is unable to talk to her parent(s) about reproductive health care, the most important thing is that she get safe, professional medical care.
The Medical Community Opposes Parental Consent or Notification Measures
- Leading medical groups, including the American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health Association, and the National Medical Association oppose mandatory parental consent or notification requirements for teens to obtain family planning services.4
1. Reddy, Diane M., Raymond Fleming, and Caroline Swain. "Effects of Mandatory Parental Notification on Adolescent Girls' Use of Sexual Health Services." The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), v 288, n 6. August 2002.
2. Abma J.C. et al. Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing. 2002. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 23(24).
3. The Alan Guttmacher Institute. Fulfilling the Promise: Public Policy and the U.S. Family Planning Clinics. August 2000. [Online, accessed December 15, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ftp_exec_sum.html]
4. National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. Parental Consent/Notification Mandates for Contraceptive Services Would Increase Unintended Pregnancies and Abortion. Fact Sheets. March 2006. [Online, accessed December 12, 2006, www.nfprha.org/atf/cf/{C342E09A-9DD8-4743-8E8C-EBDC304DF4B8}/ParentalConsentMarch2006FINAL.pdf ]
|
