Remembering Becky Bell and the Consequences of Parental Notification Laws

On September 16, 1988, 17-year-old Becky Bell died of complications that resulted from an unsafe, illegal abortion, which she sought in a desperate attempt to avoid telling her parents that she was pregnant. Becky lived in Indiana, where the law mandates that young women obtain the consent of a parent before terminating a pregnancy.

Few would deny that most young women would benefit from adult guidance when faced with an unintended pregnancy. Few would deny that such guidance ideally should come from parents.
But unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. Some teens live in troubled homes. The family might be having serious problems, or parents might be abusive, or a relative may even have caused the pregnancy. And even teenagers who have good relationships with their parents, as did Becky Bell, might be afraid to talk to them about something as sensitive as pregnancy.

Thirty-five states have laws in effect that mandate the involvement of at least one parent in the abortion decision. (Some states require the involvement of both parents.) The federal government has tried to enforce these restrictions even further.

On July 25, 2006, the U.S. Senate passed the so-called Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA), which would prevent family members like grandparents, aunts, and siblings from helping a teenager seek abortion services in another state unless the teen has met the requirements for parental involvement in her state of residence.

In addition to being ill-advised, CCPA is unconstitutional. It fails to make an exception for emergencies that threaten severe damage to a minor's health, and it burdens the constitutional right to travel to seek medical care to end a pregnancy. CCPA also ignores the fact that, because 87 percent of counties in the United States have no abortion provider, for many women the nearest provider is in another state.

Judicial Bypass

Young women who live under these laws and cannot tell their parents about their pregnancies must either travel out of state (enactment and enforcement of CCPA pending) or obtain approval from a judge — known as a "judicial bypass" procedure — to get an abortion. The result is almost always a delay that can increase both the cost of the abortion and the physical and emotional risk to the woman, since an earlier abortion is a safer one.

In Minnesota, for example, the proportion of second-trimester abortions among minors terminating their pregnancies increased by 18 percent following enactment of a parental notification law. Likewise, after Missouri's parental consent law went into effect in 1985, the proportion of second-trimester abortions among minors increased from 19 percent in 1985 to 23 percent in 1988.

And even the option of judicial bypass isn't always available. Some judges refuse to hear judicial bypass cases because of their own personal bias against abortion or other reasons, causing further delays for young women seeking abortions. In counties with a single judge, these refusals can force young women to travel to another county until they find a judge who is available to hear their case.

Punishment v. Prevention

Anti-choice politicians across the country continue to push for these laws with the goal of chipping away at a women's right to choose, under the guise that such laws will reduce the number of abortions. But these laws do nothing to reduce the number of abortions. Instead, they put the health and safety of young women, like Becky Bell, at risk.

Many of the same politicians who push for mandatory parental involvement laws also oppose measures — like comprehensive sex education and expanded access to contraception — that help prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions. They support legislation that punishes young women by jeopardizing their health and safety, while blocking efforts to promote responsibility.

The unnecessary deaths of women from unsafe, illegal abortions make clear the need for constitutional protections from regulations that endanger women. After Becky's death, her parents spoke out against laws that put women's health and safety at risk.

"Becky Bell was a beautiful, living human being who is no longer here because judges and politicians decided that they were going to be the moral conscience of this country," Becky's father Bill told 60 Minutes in February 1991.

In the same interview, her mother Karen said, "Two years ago I would have been totally for the parental consent law, but not now. ... Mothers and fathers have both come up and said, 'Well, we just know that our daughters would come to us, we know it.' And I said, 'And I knew Becky would come to me.' And look where she is."

Jon Platner is managing editor of plannedparenthood.org.