A young teen gives birth. Idaho's parental consent law snags her care.

[Jilly_in_VA]

https://wapo.st/4hflJjq

The patient, 36 weeks pregnant, was having mild but frequent contractions. She had come to the emergency room in this small lakeside town because she was new to the area and had no doctor. In most cases, physician Caitlin Gustafson would have begun a pelvic exam to determine whether labor had started. This time, she called the hospital’s lawyers.

Mom-to-be Aleah was only 13 years old. And under a new Idaho law requiring parental consent for nearly all minors’ health care, Gustafson could be sued for treating her because the girl had been brought in by her great-aunt.

What followed were more than two frantic hours of trying to contact Aleah’s mother, who was living in a car, and her grandmother, who was the teen’s legal guardian. The grandmother finally gave verbal consent for the exam — from the Boise-area jail where she was incarcerated on drug charges.

“I was freaking out,” said Anna Karren, the relative who had taken Aleah into her home just days before. What if the hospital couldn’t reach the right person? “They want guardianship papers, and I don’t have them.”

The nerve-racking scene reflected the consequences of a law that physicians, therapists, adolescent advocates, school officials and some law enforcement authorities call misguided and dangerous, another attempt to legislate health care in a state where one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans already has doctors on edge.

Critics say the law — which also grants parents access to minors’ health records, doing away with confidentiality that providers and teen advocates call crucial — ignores the reality that parents aren’t always present or trustworthy. Three months after its implementation, they contend it is hindering adolescents’ ability to access counseling, limiting evidence-collection in sexual assault cases and causing schools to seek parental permission to treat scrapes with ice packs and Band-Aids.


This is beyond stupid. First of all, why is a 13 year old pregnant? Her family dysfunction reflects a lot of that. See the article for her comment about changing diapers as a toddler. This law is dangerous as well as stupid in the extreme.

[Walleye]

1. What if it's the father or stepfather that is responsible for the pregnancy. How does she get his permission?

[cab67]

28. evidently, it was a boyfriend.

But the issue you raise is an important one.

[lindysalsagal]

32. No. Resolve the doctor's inability to treat . Make them part of the

Legal notifications and health dangers. Since they think they know better what should be done .

[Walleye]

35. Hell, sue them for practicing medicine without a license

[cab67]

39. I was referring to the sperm donor.

Depending on his age, he'd likely be guilty of statutory rape. He obviously has to be held accountable.

Actually, a lot of people should be held accountable, starting with whoever crafted this asinine law.

[Johonny]

2. Ehy should doctors stay in that state?

They shouldn't have to worry about jail to fo their job.

I assume many doctors will move and health care quality will decline.

[Jilly_in_VA]

4. Many already have

My brother is a doctor in western Montana and had worked in Idaho some time back. Although he is largely retired, he keeps tabs on things. As of last May, he said that 4 of the 5 perinatologists (those docs who care for preemies) had left the state. The one remaining was in Boise and was considering leaving. Many of the state's OB units had closed and women were having to drive to neighboring states for OB care, or depend on lay midwives. They've returned to the 1850s in many respects.

Note to women: stay the hell out of Idaho. To men: not a smart place to be either!

[evolves]

11. Perinatologists are actually high risk Obstetrics docs.

They manage medically complicated pregnancies. The Neonatologists care for newborns.

The damage these laws do to the medical profession lead directly to poor outcomes for patients and their babies, as there may soon be no physicians in the area qualified to handle complex pregnancies and deliveries (or ANY pregnancies and deliveries). It is frightening and unconscionable.

HOWEVER-- the GOP zealots don't GAF. It means nothing to them when women and their babies die, as long as they can keep women under their boots.

[BadgerMom]

17. They made abortion a political issue to accomplish this.

It took years to create the illusion for voters that this is a political issue. It is not and never has been. They have created a pool of voters for whom this is the only issue that draws them to the polls and causes them to vote for Republicans. The voters consider this a righteous issue in part because politicians joined with religious fanatics to do so. Yes, they want women under the boot, but they will do anything to get votes-kill women, keep eligible voters from casting their vote, collude with foreign powers. I can’t believe people have blinders on about any of this.

[Lars39]

12. I haven't heard the outcome of this pregnancy,

but we had an extended family member decide to go to Montana 3 weeks before her due date with first baby.
They were going to stay 2 weeks in an RV for husband’s work.
Knocked me speechless.

[cab67]

40. If I was the husband,

I would only do this with an escape plan, up to and including a refundable plane ticket out of Montana.

[Lars39]

44. Thing is, you get so far along and they advise not to fly.

His mother was so concerned that she went with them.

[cab67]

47. Understood.

[Jilly_in_VA]

50. Parts of Montana are okay

It depends on where you are. It's IDAHO that's a fucking disaster area and reverting to the 1850s. If theyr'e within an hour of a city of any size in Montana (Helena, Bozeman, Missoula, for example) they'll be fine.

[Lars39]

52. I don't know where in Montana they were going.

I figured out in the sticks with the oil wells.

[Delphinus]

53. What you said,

about depending on lay midwives took me immediately to "Educated" by Tara Westover.

What has happened in regard to our bodies is chilling.

[patphil]

3. Outside of the idiocy of how this situation was handled, I'd like to know who the father is.

It's bad enough this 13 year old girl in an obviously dis-functional family was pregnant, but the state of Idaho has created a nightmare scenario that makes it hard for her to get the health care she needs at this point in her pregnancy.
Health care professionals should not have to worry about whether or not they will be arrested if they treat a young girl who is probably going into labor.

[IzzaNuDay]

20. the father is also a teen

and currently in juvenile detention.

That young woman has been failed by her parents, and now the state. No 13 year old should be pregnant or parenting an infant . She’s lost her teenage years, and vulnerable to poverty unless she decides otherwise.

[calimary]

24. Oh brother...

What YOU said, my friend. NO 13-year-old should be pregnant OR having to parent an infant! NOT A SINGLE ONE.

[IbogaProject]

34. No Teens at all

Societies are better when the average of first birth is over 19 years old. The body is still growing and maturing through the teens.

[cab67]

41. She's spent her whole life in poverty.

Getting out of it's going to be a real challenge unless she gets a massive amount of help.

[evolves]

45. This is what the GQP want:

when girls and women are saddled with children they don’t want and can’t afford, they are kept in poverty and without a voice. They have no way to participate in civic life, allowing the PTB to continue to stay in power.

[Blue Full Moon]

21. He's a teenager also.

[lindysalsagal]

5. Docs should call the legislators to the ER and make them resolve it.

Don't let them leave until the child is treated. They want to run people's lives to remain in office, so be it.

[moonshinegnomie]

22. My idea

If a woman dies due to these laws arrest every legislator who voted for them on murder charges

[Maru Kitteh]

6. She is living in a world where grandmas in jail and being passed from house to house is normal.

[Walleye]

37. Republicans refuse to believe these kinds of families exist. They prefer their red state colored glasses.

[surfered]

7. Horror story!

[birdographer]

8. "American Horror Story" is more like it...

[calimary]

25. No kidding!

[Beaverhausen]

9. Isn't there some oath that doctors take to "First, do no harm"?

If I was a doctor I would treat that poor girl and ask questions later. Jesus Christ!

[evolves]

13. The problem is,

physicians can be charged with a felony if they do so, effectively ending their careers.

The choice then becomes felony vs malpractice. It is unconscionable.

[Beaverhausen]

46. Do you really think a jury would convict a physician who helped her?

[drmeow]

49. The trial might bankrupt the MD

It could also still cost them their job.

[evolves]

54. As a physician, I don't want to choose between

harming a patient and losing my career. Whether a jury would find in my favor or not, the thought of purposefully harming a patient by withholding care that could send me to prison is unconscionable.

[jfz9580m]

10. A pregnant 13 yo?

Good god they really have set progress back a 100 years..

[LisaM]

16. 36 weeks pregnant, at that.

She could have become pregnant at age 12, and the fact that they aren't searching for a potential criminal who could have impregnated a minor is appalling. (Though for all we know, it could have been a 13-year old boy).

[jfz9580m]

48. Yeah seriously

If it’s a 13 yo boy/consensual makes you wonder if Idaho has abstinence only type of sex ed. I have no idea what kind of sex ed they have and how early it starts, but clearly not early enough (if it is not rape by an older adult but consensual sex with another child).

[valleyrogue]

55. More to the point, what kind of parents

push their kids into dating and relationships when they should be focusing on their studies instead?

Kids don't even KNOW the concept of "consent." They don't have the capability to make rational decisions. Besides coercion, including rape, can happen with teens.

[jfz9580m]

56. Good point

I shouldn’t have used the word “consensual”. At 13, they don’t really know wth they are doing even without force or rape. Which is all the more reason why comprehensive sex ed would help.

[iluvtennis]

14. This is so sad. If the "powers that be" dictate a 13-year old must have a baby, then they need to pass

policies so she can be declared an emancipated minor (=act as an adult) to make her own medical decisions.

[markodochartaigh]

15. Republicans want to shrink the government

until it is small enough to fit into the womb.

[Nasruddin]

18. Republicans want to shrink the government

until it's tight when it fits around your neck

[calimary]

43. And THIS ONE's a good one, too!

[calimary]

42. That's a GOOD one.

[Ping Tung]

19. The people who claim to be "Family First" have grown savage and grotesque in their

determination to control women.

[Shoonra]

23. About the baby's father ....

from the Washington Post article:

Aleah, who is being identified by only her first name because of her age, had been moved around her whole life. That included spells in foster care and a halfway house, separated from her six siblings. She only briefly lived with her mother several years ago. Her father had long been absent.

As for her baby’s teen dad, he now was in juvenile detention. The pair hadn’t thought about contraception, Aleah conceded, and she never considered an abortion, which would have required a trip to another state anyway.

So, the girl's mother is living in a car (presumably with drug problems), the girl's grandmother (her legal guardian) is in jail (for a drug offense), the girl's father did a vanishing act years ago, the girl's boyfriend (who got her pregnant) is in juvie jail. The girl's great-aunt was taking care of her but lacks the legal authority to permit doctors to treat the girl (and, according to the Post article, the great-aunt has been recently evicted).

All in all, a family portrait worthy of Norman Rockwell.

[Walleye]

38. Someone should present the situation to JD Vance and ask him what we should do about it

[Blue Full Moon]

26. Just read an article about GOP

Lamenting that teen births were down. Abstinence isn't going to work. Teenage hormones raging and no thoughts past now. I lived in republican controlled area. Went to a strict evangelical church and not one of the teens in the Bible study was a virgin.

[orleans]

27. a picture of a baby's hand holding aleah's finger (at the wapo link)

with the caption:

Oaklie holds her mother Aleah's finger shortly after the two came home from the hospital. Because of Idaho's new parental consent law, the teen can make decisions about her newborn's health care but not her own. (Rachel Woolf for The Washington Post)

[Jilly_in_VA]

51. That is not only crazy

it's absolutely terrible.

[Fiddlelady11]

29. Idaho is in a terrible drought...

Gaia’s revenge.

[cab67]

30. Very sad situation all around.

There's so much wrong with this girl's environment. She doesn't appear to have had a stable home at any point in her life. Those responsible for her are evidently unable to provide anything.

And it doesn't look like CPS, or whatever it's equivalent in Idaho, has done much to help her.

I hope her larger community is able to rally around her. She needs it.

[Joinfortmill]

31. This is so appallingly sad.

[Botany]

33. From Governor Tim Walz last week in Pittsburgh

It is none of their God Damn business.

[MineralMan]

36. We should not be surprised when young teens who

don't live in a situation where there is good, close parental supervision get pregnant. What we should do is be appalled that there is no support for youngsters who find themselves in that situation. That is where we are failing that girl. Getting pregnant is easy. Dealing with it is hard.

Plus, even kids with good, close parental supervision get pregnant sometimes. We need to deal with realities and help kids who need help. Wringing our hands over them getting pregnant isn't helping. They need real help with dealing with what is actually happening.