Latest Pro-Life News

If Big Abortion’s war on parents hasn’t come to your state yet, it will soon. 35 states have laws requiring, at a minimum, that parents be notified when their minor child seeks an abortion; 27 require parental consent. While these requirements face little opposition from voters, the well-heeled abortion lobby is doing everything in its power to get rid of them. Insidiously, they attack these laws under the pretense of concern for the same children whose exploitation they profit from.

In Missouri, after an extreme pro-abortion constitutional amendment narrowly passed, a group calling itself “Right by You” sued to strip the state’s parental involvement requirements, arguing they “bully” pregnant teens to carry their child to term and calling activists who facilitate abortions “Good Samaritans.” This follows a Missouri Planned Parenthood getting caught last year offering to help transport a 13-year-old girl out of state for an abortion, stating, “We never tell the parents anything” and that, as far as they are concerned, children are adults within their walls. SBA’s Kelsey Pritchard observes, “Ending parental consent would enable abusers and traffickers to exploit minors in Missouri. The abortion lobby’s litigation reveals the end goal of pro-abortion ballot measures. Rather than protecting a ‘decision between a woman and her doctor,’ these amendments protect abortion business’ profits at the expense of girls and their parents.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has an opportunity to speak decisively in a new case, Montana v. Planned Parenthood of Montana.

History of the case

Montana voters overwhelmingly (upwards of 70%) approved parental notification by referendum in 2012. The following year, the legislature attempted to strengthen the law to parental consent. Both are well in line with public opinion nationally. But neither went into effect thanks to Planned Parenthood, who immediately sued. After Dobbs, the state sought to get the block on parental consent lifted. At the behest of Planned Parenthood, who claim parental involvement “infringes upon a minor’s fundamental right to privacy,” the radical Montana Supreme Court – which found a privacy “right” to abortion in the state constitution as far back as 1999 – ruled against both laws.

Like Planned Parenthood, the state supreme court purports to be motivated by concern for minors. But its decisions do nothing to actually protect children – they trample parental rights, obstruct informed consent and undermine provisions that protect minors from abuse.

In April, SBA Pro-Life America and Charlotte Lozier Institute joined over 40 pro-life and pro-family leaders in submitting an amicus brief supporting Montana and Attorney General Austin Knudsen, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The brief argues 1) parental consent is essential to protecting the well-being of pregnant minors; 2) Planned Parenthood’s mission is ending unborn life, not protecting the interests of girls and their parents; and 3) parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children. Citing Troxel v. Granville and other Supreme Court precedents, it affirms that “the interest of parents in the care, custody and control of their children” pre-exists government and “the child is not the mere creature of the State.” It notes minors, lacking life experience, can be particularly susceptible to pressure to make decisions not in their best interest, particularly in cases of abuse.

“In the state of Montana, girls who aren’t old enough to get their ears pierced on their own can now get an abortion without mom or dad ever knowing,” says SBA’s Director of Legal Affairs and Policy Counsel Katie Daniel. “If you’re a parent in Montana, this means someone who is not you and does not share your values gets to decide what happens to your kids.”

This battle is playing out among the lower courts. The 5th and 9th Circuits have correctly recognized protecting children requires allowing parents to be informed about life-altering medical decisions.

Others, unfortunately, have sided with the abortion lobby. In 2016 the Alaska Supreme Court decided the state’s parental notification legislation violated its equal protection requirement. Minors in the state typically can’t make medical decisions without parental consent – getting an HPV vaccine, for instance is strictly prohibited without parental involvement – but Planned Parenthood will gladly carry out an abortion (or, increasingly, gender transitions).

Planned Parenthood against children

Planned Parenthood, which was involved in both the Alaska and Montana cases, lobbies extensively against parental involvement protections. Planned Parenthood of Illinois, for example, asks readers to call their representative and read a script about the alleged harms of parental notification laws. Similarly, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) grades states on a scale of A-F on abortion accessibility for minors.

For all its talk about safety and protecting minors, Planned Parenthood evidently cares for neither. Abortiondocs.org found botched procedures at one PPLM facility hospitalized 10 women in 12 months. Ironically, PPLM also received a $5,000,000 federal grant to develop a sex-ed program for middle and high school students. Ostensibly supposed to discourage teen pregnancy, the program’s lesson plans prompt teachers to initiate inappropriate discussions with students, such as asking whether they agree with statements like “It’s OK to send sexy pictures to someone as long as you are in a committed relationship.”

Planned Parenthood has a history of deceiving parents. When Toni, a teenage girl, called to schedule an abortion, Planned Parenthood – without her asking – told her they’d use a fake name to confirm her appointment. Planned Parenthood allegedly even uses altered doctors’ notes to get kids out of school.

It’s no surprise the organization is popular with traffickers, who can bring their victims to a Planned Parenthood facility without fear of consequences. One survivor noted, “At least one of my abortions was from Planned Parenthood because they didn’t ask any questions.” The organization has repeatedly been caught failing in its mandated duty to report sexual abuse of minors to authorities, including a case where the victim told staff she had been raped.

Former Planned Parenthood educator Monica Cline alleges such cases aren’t anomalies – they’re a result of Planned Parenthood’s purposeful ignorance:

“[Planned Parenthood workers] adopted George Bush’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ [policy]… If we don’t ask how old her partner is, we don’t have to tell. And so Planned Parenthood actually allows victims of human trafficking to continue to be victims of human trafficking. And they’re okay with that. I went back to my office and I told my supervisor, listen, I’m trying to teach them about key concepts on Title X; they’re admitting that they’re not going to report cases of statutory rape.”

No informed consent without parental involvement

Additionally, parental notification requirements are essential to ensuring informed consent – a critical safeguard against medical malpractice. The standard requires doctors to fully educate patients about potential benefits, risks and possible complications before performing a medical procedure, empowering them to make knowledgeable, free and uncoerced decisions.

Informed consent requirements pose an obstacle for abortionists, who not infrequently take the position that the less women know, the better. One scholarly study found nearly 70% of abortions are unwanted, coerced or inconsistent with women’s own values and preferences – with deleterious effects on mental health. Another study showed how common it is, even among adult women, to face extreme pressure from other people.

This is especially a concern with minors, who aren’t capable of fully considering the repercussions of their medical decisions. Lozier Institute explains:

“One medical liability insurance provider observed, ‘As a rule, minors are considered incompetent decision makers and cannot make health care decisions or give informed consent on their own behalf. Consent, therefore, falls to the parent or legal guardian in most situations.’”

The American College of Pediatricians found “teens, with their still-maturing brains, rely more on impulse than rational and goal-oriented thought. Based on this research-derived data and its implications for adolescent decision-making capacity, there should be no debate regarding parental involvement in a minor’s abortion.”

SCOTUS can literally save kids

Planned Parenthood postures as a caring organization, insinuating itself between parents and children, but logic suggests another motive for their resistance to every form of oversight: an average price tag per abortion of several hundred to a few thousand dollars – not to mention hundreds of millions in annual taxpayer funding. While the legislative and executive branches also have their role to play, the legal case is clear-cut. The Supreme Court can and should step in, not only to settle conflicts among lower courts but to stop the profit-driven abortion industry from destroying the health, happiness and innocence of countless children.