4 Long-term studies of abusive and dysfunctional families reveal that the incidence of violence escalates when a wife or teenage daughter becomes pregnant. Forcing a young woman to notify her abusive parent of a pregnancy can have dangerous, and even fatal, consequences for her and for other family members. The same percentage of minors inform their parents about their intent to have an abortion in states with and without parental involvement laws. This legislation will not create healthy family communication where it does not already exist. For many young women, the judicial bypass is not a real alternative.
Some teenagers live in regions where the local judges simply never grant bypass petitions.
For example, the director of an Indianapolis women's clinic told the New York Times in 1992 that she was not aware of any teenager who had been granted a judicial bypass in that city in the prior six years. 8 Other young women have reason to fear being recognized in local courthouses. Still others simply cannot face revealing intimate details of their lives to a series of strangers in a formal, legal process. This legislation will endanger the health of young women by forcing them to travel alone. In addition, some teenagers must travel out of state to obtain an abortion, either because the closest abortion facility is located in a neighboring state or because there is no in-state provider available at their stage of pregnancy.