Facts on the so-called Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act:

• It would impose an impossibly complex patchwork of parental-involvement laws on women and doctors across the country, making it extraordinarily difficult for young women to access abortion care in another state.  Because only 13 percent of U.S. counties have an abortion provider, for many young women the closest provider is in a neighboring state
• It would impose criminal penalties on any adult other than a parent – including a grandparent, aunt, or religious counselor – who accompanies a young woman for abortion care in another state.  This anti-choice bill doesn’t take into account the women who seek the help of another responsible adult because of violence at home, or in situations of rape or incest. 
• Not only is the bill unconstitutional, it would criminalize doctors who make an honest or inadvertent mistake in complying with one of the many complicated provisions.
  

To learn more about the intricacies of the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, click here to read a fact sheet.

We believe that it’s best for parents to be involved in a young woman’s reproductive-health decisions.  However, the government cannot mandate healthy family communication where it doesn’t exist.  Some young women may need the help of another responsible adult because of the threat of violence at home, or if the woman was raped or a victim of incest.  Young women in these unfortunate but very real circumstances could actually be harmed by this bill.

Major medical associations – including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American Public Health Association – have longstanding policies opposing mandatory parental involvement laws because of the dangers they pose to young women and the need for confidential access to health care.