The Emergency Exception in Parental Involvement Laws and the Necessity of Post-Emergency Notification
![handle is hein.journals/avemar4 and id is 179 raw text is: THE EMERGENCY EXCEPTION IN PARENTAL
INVOLVEMENT LAWS AND THE NECESSITY OF
POST-EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION
AndrewR. Willist
INTRODUCTION
In 1973, the Supreme Court held that before a fetus was viable, a
woman's right to choose whether to terminate her pregnancy
outweighed any interest of the State in the life of the fetus.' As the
pregnancy advances towards full term, a state's compelling interest in
the child and health of the mother increased-compelling interests
that allow certain regulations on abortion.2 After this decision, states
attempted many laws to regulate abortion. The focus of this note is
the regulation of abortion for pregnant minors.3
Although pregnant minors were also granted the right to an
abortion in Roe v. Wade, the states have additional interests that
justify more rigid regulations over minors.4 The state regulations
typically require the pregnant minor to notify her parents, or to obtain
their consent, before a physician may perform an abortion (parental
consent and parental notification laws are collectively parental
involvement laws).' As of this writing, twenty-five states require
parental consent and nineteen states require parental notification for a
t Juris Doctor Candidate, Ave Maria School of Law, 2006. I would like to thank
Professor Richard Myers of the Ave Maria School of Law.
1. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 163 (1973).
2. Id. at 163-64.
3. This note does not discuss the constitutional legitimacy or morality of abortion, only
the present state of the law. Any discussion of reversing Roe v. Wade or any other Supreme
Court precedent exceeds the scope of this article. However, Roe v. Wade should be recognized
as the greatest example and symbol of the judicial usurpation of democratic prerogatives in this
century. ROBERT H. BORK, THE TEMPTING OF AMERICA: THE POLITICAL SEDUCTION OF THE LAW
116 (1990).
4. Planned Parenthood of Idaho v. Wasden, 376 F.3d 908, 922 (9th Cir. 2004).
5. Teresa Stanton Collett, Protecting Our Daughters. The Need for the Vermont Parental
Notification Law, 26 VT. L. REV. 101, 106 (2001) [hereinafter Collett, Protecting Our Daughters].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/avemar4&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Emergency Exception in Parental Involvement Laws and the Necessity of Post-Emergency Notification
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