The Circular Logic of the “Maturity” Requirements For example, Florida directs judges to consider a variety of factors, including the minor’s age, “overall intelligence,” “emotional development and stability,” “credibility and demeanor,” “ability to accept responsibility” and to understand the “consequences” and “medical risks.8 A few states require judges consider specific criteria to decide if a minor petitioning for a bypass meets the “mature enough” test.Under their stringent standards, the woman’s evidence that she had received counseling from Planned Parenthood on all medical and emotional aspects of her decision and that she was a good student was not enough. They justified this heightened standard as necessary in part to protect her parents’ interests, and because of the “magnitude” of the issue of abortion. The Arizona courts required that she provide “clear and convincing evidence” that she was mature enough – a much higher burden than is often applied in civil cases. In 2003, a young woman in Arizona sought a judicial bypass waiver.Some states require that a minor present a great deal of evidence to prove to a judge she is “mature enough and well enough informed” before a judge may grant a waiver.6.The judge must then decide 1) if she has proven that that she is “mature enough and well enough informed to make her abortion decision, in consultation with her physician, independent of her parents’ knowledge or 2) that even if she is not able to make this decision independently, the desired abortion would be in her best interests.”4 Within these guidelines judges are given wide discretion in how they may make decisions for the young people that ask them for a bypass.5
Baird the Supreme Court laid out the criteria for judicial bypass procedures: they stated that to be constitutional, a procedure must allow pregnant minors to go before a judge in a proceeding that ensures her anonymity and is conducted with “sufficient expedition” to actually allow her to obtain abortion care. The Unclear Criteria for Judicial Bypass Procedures
Kansas, for example, requires that two parents give their consent in front of a registered notary.2 A few states allow a grandparent, other family member, or doctor to give permission in lieu of a parent, but most require a judge’s permission in the form of a judicial bypass waiver.3
Eight states add the additional burden of requiring that parental consent forms be notarized. Today, parental involvement laws are in effect in thirty eight states. The Supreme Court allows states to implement laws that require minors seeking abortions to notify one or both parents or require one or both parents to consent if they include an alternate procedure we now know as judicial bypass. These judicial bypass procedures are demeaning, onerous, and stand in the way of young people’s access to safe abortion care.
#What is judicial consent full#
Implementation of the procedures is full of logistical nightmares that push some young people through the cracks and provide no check against bias and lies. The procedures are based on unclear legal criteria which create the double standard of requiring young people seeking bypasses to be “mature” enough before they may choose to have an abortion but not have a child. Judicial bypass procedures put judges – who are not doctors, not counselors, not experts in health or youth development – in the position of making reproductive healthcare decisions for the young people before them. As of January 2015, thirty-eight states enforce laws that require a young person under 18 to notify or obtain consent from one or both parents before she can receive abortion care.1 The Supreme Court has allowed these laws, so long as they include narrow exceptions, generally called “judicial bypass” procedures, which require minors to receive court approval to access abortion care when they do not have their parents’ knowledge or consent. In many states people under 18 may independently consent to a range of sensitive health care services, yet those seeking safe abortion care are singled out under the law. Young people need confidential and safe access to the full range of reproductive and sexual health services – including abortion. Undue Burdens for Young People Seeking Safe Abortion Care Available in format.
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