Larry Rodick, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Alabama, said the decision creates a trap for girls who feel they can't tell their parents about a pregnancy. A clinic's doctor won't talk to a girl about an abortion without her parent's consent, and now it appears the girl can't get judicial approval for an abortion without talking to a doctor first, Rodick said. Consent law Alabama's parental consent law requires a female under 18 to get a parent's permission to have an abortion. If she feels she can't tell a parent, she can get a judge to waive the parent's approval and let her have an abortion. State law allows a judge to deny the abortion if the girl is immature and not well-informed, or if the abortion would not be in her best interests.
Few girls use the courts to get abortions.
The identities of the girls, their attorneys and the trial judges who handle their cases are sealed by the courts. A lower court judge denied the abortion May 11 after the girl testified in court that she had been to three medical facilities and all of them refused to let her talk to the doctor who would be performing the abortion. The trial judge said she had concerns about the girl's maturity and about whether she was sufficiently informed about the abortion procedure, especially since she had not been able to speak with a physician. All rights reserved. AP contributed to this report.