Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Parental Involvement in Minors’ Abortion laws (PI laws) are designed to reduce abortion among minors and may impact their sexual behavior. Currently, 37 states in the US have parental involvement in abortion laws. Previous research on PI laws and risky sexual behavior has lumped the two types of PI laws (notification and consent) into one treatment indicator with mixed findings. Notification requires the provider to notify a parent or guardian while consent requires the minor to obtained signed consent on a designated form from their parent or guardian prior to the procedure. Given that each law is enacted individually, knowing the impact of each policy may better inform future legislation. This study estimates the effect of each law separately on risky sexual behavior, defined as sex without any form of contraception, among teens using data from the 1991-2015 Youth Risky Behavior Surveillance Survey. A Panel FE model finds that PI laws reducerisky sexual behavior by 1.5-2 percent, a 33-40 percent decrease from the mean. While slightly larger in magnitude, the effect of consent laws is not statistically distinguishable from the effect of notification laws.