parental notification laws result in decreased abortion-rate among minors

WEDNESDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- Since January 2000, Texas state law has mandated that doctors notify the parents of any girl under the age of 18 seeking an abortion at least 48 hours before the procedure.

Similar laws, all hotly contested, exist in one form or another in 34 states.

Now, one of the most rigorously conducted studies to date on the issue of parental notification finds that the rate of teen abortions in Texas dropped by 11 percent among 15-year-olds, 20 percent among 16-year-olds, and 16 percent among 17-year-olds in the first two years after the bill was enacted.

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