Pediatricians warn Roe v. Wade reversal has ‘grave consequences’ for teens

Shirin Ali | June 28, 2022
·3 min read

Story at a glance

  • The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

  • The group warned eliminating abortion access would harm adolescents nationwide and could result in delayed health care and limited pregnancy options.

  • In 2020, the U.S. teen birth rate was 15.4 births for every 1,000 females aged 15 to 19.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warned that without the constitutional right to an abortion there could be grave consequences for adolescents nationwide, a population that already faces barriers to accessing comprehensive reproductive health care services — including abortion.

With limited or no access to abortion services, teenagers may end up with delays in their health care that could increase volatility within a family, limit pregnancy options or even cause someone to seek an unsafe abortion.

That’s a reality AAP is voicing concern over, after the Supreme Court issued an opinion Friday that overturned Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year precedent that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion access. Following the opinion, more than a dozen states are expected to restrict or ban abortion, including 13 states with “trigger laws” that are designed to take effect immediately or through quick state action.

Under AAP’s established policy, The Adolescent’s Right to Confidential Care When Considering Abortion, it affirms that adolescents under the age of 18, “should have the right to receive legal and confidential medical and surgical abortion care and counseling.”

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“Today’s ruling means that in many places in the United States, this evidence-based care will be difficult or impossible to access, threatening the health and safety of our patients and jeopardizing the patient-physician relationship,” said Moira Szilagyi, president of AAP, in a statement last week.

AAP stresses that adolescents should be allowed to make their own health care decisions regarding undesired pregnancy, including the right to obtain an abortion. Timely access to medical care is especially important for pregnant teenagers because of the significant medical, personal and social consequences of adolescent childbearing.

Early childbearing can lead to a range of negative outcomes for the teenage mother and her child, including lower rates of school completion, higher rates of single motherhood, higher rates of preterm birth and low birth weight, increased rates of incarceration among male children and more.

AAP also stressed thar minors should have the right to obtain an abortion without parental consent, though many states laws mandate minors seek parental consent or notification in order to move forward with an abortion.

According to abortion policy group Guttmacher Institute, 37 states require parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion but of those states, 36 also have a judicial bypass in place for minors to request an abortion without involving a parent.

In 2020, the U.S. teen birth rate was 15.4 births for every 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 — which is down 8 percent from 2019 and down 75 percent from the 1991 peak of 61.8, according to Health and Human Services (HHS).

However, the teen birth rate in the U.S. is still considered higher than that in many other developed countries including Canada and the U.K.

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