Analysis: This statement is true. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Adolescents Medicine,"(t)he issue of confidentiality of care is a significant access barrier to health care."²

Analysis: The ad suggests that if Prop. 4 passes, some young women will be driven to seek illegal or dangerous "back alley" abortions. Because an unlicensed abortion is an underground activity, there is very little data or research to indicate the effects one way or the other of parental notification laws on the use of unlicensed abortionists by minors.

Currently, California law provides minors the right to confidential medical care for certain sensitive areas, including medical care related to a pregnancy. In the 1950s, California legislators enacted and later expanded "limited medical emancipation" statutes³ for minors to discourage them from seeking unlicensed care or failing to obtain necessary health care⁴. Limited medical statutes authorized an unmarried pregnant minor, without parental consent, to obtain hospital, medical, and surgical care related to pregnancy."⁵

Analysis: This statement is true. Some experts claim that children are often unable to disclose childhood sexual abuse because they fear the consequences to their families, the abuser and themselves.⁶ Perpetrators of child sexual abuse often can include family members, neighbors, childcare givers, teachers, or strangers; 80 percent of child sexual abuse is committed by a family member or someone who is known to the child. The most common perpetrators are the father, stepfather or other male family member.⁷ However, this ad does not mention that some portion of minors from abusive homes might utilize the judicial bypass or alternate family member notification in spite of the resulting Child Protective Services investigation.

According to the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, children in sexually abusive situations are "extremely fearful of telling" about the abuse.⁸ Recent research from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that a small percentage of minors indicated that if parental notification for the use of family planning clinics or prescription contraceptives was required, they would stop using family planning clinics due to the fear of physical violence.<sup>9


1</sup>  Jones, Rachel K, Alison Purcell, Susheela Singh, and Lawrence B. Finer, Adolescents’ Reports of Parental Knowledge of Adolescents’ Use of Sexual Health Services and Their Reactions to Mandated Parental Notification for Prescription Contraception, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 293, No. 3, January 19, 2005.

²  American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Adolescents Medicine, Protecting Adolescent: Ensuring Access to Care and Reporting Sexual Activity and Abuse, Journal of Adolescent Health 2004; 32:422.

³  Stats. 1953, ch. 1654, § 1, p. 3383, enacting former Civ. Code, § 34.5, now Fam. Code, § 6925.

⁴  According to the California State Supreme Court, these “limited medical emancipation” statutes were designed to “identify circumstances in which a minor in need of medical care may be reluctant, for a variety of reasons, to inform his or parents of the situation or condition that has created the minor’s need for such care….because of such reluctance, there is a substantial risk that minors would fail to seek medical care –‘to the detriment to themselves, their families, and society.’”

⁵  Supreme Court of California 16 Cal. 4th 307; 940 P.2d 797; 66 Cal. Rptr. 2d 210; 1997 Cal. LEXIS 4411; 97 Cal. Daily Op. Service 6151; 97 Daily Journal DAR 10141.

⁶  London, Kamala, Maggie Bruck and Stephen J. Ceci, DISCLOSURE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE What Does the Research Tell Us About the Ways That Children Tell?, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2005, Vol. 11, No. 1, 194–226.

⁷  SCU >> The Wellness Center >> Adult Survivors of Incest, http://www.scu.edu/wellness/incestsurvivors.cfm.

⁸  American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Facts for Families, May 2008: http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/child_sexual_abuse.

⁹  Jones, Rachel K, Alison Purcell, Susheela Singh, and Lawrence B. Finer, Adolescents’ Reports of Parental Knowledge of Adolescents’ Use of Sexual Health Services and Their Reactions to Mandated Parental Notification for Prescription Contraception, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 293, No. 3, January 19, 2005.

^**  One study of impact of parental notification prior to abortion on teen gonorrhea rates by a Florida State University Professor of Economics indicated that teen gonorrhea rates dropped after parental notification laws were enacted.  (Klick, Jonathan and Thomas Stratmann, Abortion Access and Risky Sex Among Teens, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 24(1), Spring 2008.) However, this study does not bear directly on the ad’s statement that parental notification would have a negative impact on some minors seeking medical treatment.