Opinion ID: 763594
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The statement of mental capacity

Text: 25 Rule 24(5)(a)(iv) requires the minor seeking to judicially bypass the consent requirement to state in her petition whether the applicant is of sound mind and has sufficient intellectual capacity to consent to the abortion. The district court held that this provision was likely unconstitutional because it deterred minors who were not of sound mind and sufficient intellectual capacity from pursuing the judicial bypass procedure and therefore subverted the Bellotti II requirement that a judicial bypass be available for those minors in whose best interests it is to have an abortion. 26 Such a holding is unwarranted. Rule 24 requires only that the minor state whether [she] is of sound mind and has sufficient intellectual capacity; it does not foreclose her from seeking an abortion if she does not have that capacity. The Rule thus asks for one form of proof for determining whether the minor satisfies the maturity prong of Bellotti II. Although item six of the model application contained in the appendix to the Rule requires the minor to state affirmatively that she is of sound mind and has sufficient intellectual capacity, according to Rule 24(6) a minor's application need only be in substantial conformity with the model application. See also Ashcroft, 462 U.S. at 479 n. 4, 493, 103 S.Ct. 2517 (1983) (quoting portions of the Missouri parental consent statute requiring the minor or her next friend to state that the minor is of sound mind and sufficient intellectual capacity and stating that the statute avoids any constitutional infirmities) (Rehnquist, C.J., concurring with Powell, J.). 4