Parental Consent? More Like Parental Insistence.
A New York Times study of six states with laws requiring parental notification or consent for minors seeking abortions finds such laws have little effect on pregnancy or abortion rates. It turns out, not surprisingly, that parents are often the ones pushing for abortions. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, but I thought the main argument for parental notification/consent was that abortion should not be treated differently from other surgical procedures. I don't recall hearing advocates (or opponents) of these laws predict they would have a big impact on abortion rates. But if they did, it looks like they were wrong.