Our Justice Leads Report on Minnesota's Forced Parental Involvement Law

As an organization providing direct financial and logistical support for abortion care, we see the impacts of state-level abortion restrictions firsthand. Restrictions like a 24-hour waiting period, physician-only requirements, and two-parent notifications for minors create barriers to abortion care that disproportionately affect people of color, people with low incomes, and youth.

Our Justice’s Vision Realization Advisor, Shayla, joined local abortion providers and advocates to put together a report with If/When/How on the impact that Minnesota’s forced parental involvement laws have on youth. The two-parent notification law forces young people under age 18 seeking abortion care in Minnesota to choose between several bleak scenarios: notifying both parents of their decision regardless of their relationship, having an abortion provider notify their parents about their private medical decision 48 hours prior to accessing the care they need, or going to court to request an order from a judge to bypass the two-parent notification.

Imagine being a young person finding out that you are pregnant, trying to schedule an abortion in a state with multiple week scheduling delays at every clinic, figuring out how to pay for your procedure, and then finding out you have to go to court for a stranger behind a bench to decide if it is in your best interest to access the health care you need. As one advocate quoted in the report says,

“Most people haven’t been to court. They’ve only seen it on TV. And if you’re a person of color, interacting with the court can be extremely stressful and traumatizing for young people. Even though I’m constantly telling people their information is confidential inside the courtroom, that doesn’t mean their experience feels that way from beginning to end. There’s an armed deputy and cameras when you first enter the courthouse building. It’s scary. It’s a big deal.”

Read the full report here.

The two-parent notification law is just one of over a dozen abortion restrictions we’re challenging in a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota. Donate today to help us dismantle legal barriers to abortion access and ensure bodily autonomy for everyone!