Doctors left to figure out compliance with abortion consent law
By Kelley Shannon
Associated Press
August 26, 2005 A Texas law requiring doctors to get parental consent for minors who want to have an abortion goes into effect next week, but physicians probably won't have a state-approved consent form for patients until next year. Doctors still must obtain written parental consent starting Sept. 1. But some specifics about how to comply with the law are being left up to doctors, for now. The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, in charge of implementing the law, hasn't finished work on a consent form for physicians to present to parents or guardians of minors, said Jill Wiggins, spokeswoman for the board. It could be as late as next spring before a form gets final approval from the medical examiners board at one of its regularly scheduled meetings, Wiggins said. In the meantime, she said, doctors may use a consent form already in use for another reproductive medical procedure. "The law goes into effect, and physicians are going to be required to get consent," said Wiggins, whose agency oversees physician licensing and discipline. However, if the agency takes disciplinary action against a doctor for failing to comply with the law, it would only come about if a complaint is filed, she said. "We are complaint-driven," Wiggins said. "We're not actively going out inspecting offices." Planned Parenthood, which offers abortions at seven of its 83 clinics statewide, plans to use as a consent form a modified version of the letter it uses for parental notification of abortion, said Heather Paffe, political director for the Texas Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. Parents of minor girls seeking abortions already must be notified. But girls can avoid the notification requirement if a judge rules it could result in abuse. That same judicial bypass is allowed under the consent law, which requires the written consent of a parent for an unmarried girl younger than 18 who is seeking an abortion. Another part of the law bars doctors from performing abortions on women who have carried a fetus for more than 26 weeks unless giving birth would jeopardize the woman's life or the baby has serious brain damage. Twenty-five states already have parental consent laws, said Sarah Wheat, executive director of NARAL Pro-choice Texas. Advocates on both sides of the abortion issue say that parental consent works much like parental notification, and that in September a minor girl in Texas seeking an abortion probably won't notice much difference from the current system. "Consent in many ways is the same as notification," said Elizabeth Graham, director of Texas Right To Life. The effect of the new law ultimately will be determined by how the Board of Medical Examiners develops its rules governing consent, Graham said, adding that some states require parents to give consent in person and others don't. Proponents of the law argued that parents should be involved in medical decisions pertaining to their children. Planned Parenthood lobbied against the law but takes it seriously and plans to comply, Paffe said. But, she said, minor girls won't see a significant change in clinic procedures. The vast majority of minors come in with a parent anyway, she said. In Texas, 3,499 abortions were performed on girls younger than 18 in 2002, the latest year for which statistics are available from the Department of State Health Services. That same year, 43 women had abortions after 26 weeks of pregnancy.
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