Teen abortions reduced by Texas notification law

[cynatnite]

BOSTON (Reuters) - Teen-age girls in Texas are having fewer abortions following enforcement of a law that forces doctors to tell a parent if their daughter wants to terminate her pregnancy, new research shows. But the law has also increased the birth rate among older white teens and forced some girls to delay the procedure, increasing its risk.

snip:
The study found that many girls who become pregnant close to their eighteenth birthday put off the abortion until they turn 18 so they can avoid the notification requirement. But the delay "just makes more difficult, more expensive and potentially more risky," Joyce said.

The law also seemed responsible for a 10 percent increase in the birthrate among 17-year-old white girls who became pregnant when they were a bit further from their 18th birthday, so were unable to wait to have an abortion.

snip:
"The demonstrated decrease in abortion rates and increase in birth rates suggest that Texas' parental notification law induced a rise in unintended childbearing among this subgroup of older minors," the researchers stated in the study.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060308/hl_nm/abortion_dc