Court Opinion

ID: 9791334
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:09:04.252913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:35.573890
License: Public Domain

*918Stafford, J.
(dissenting) — Prior to November of 1970, an unmarried pregnant teenager had only limited options available to her. For example, she could marry the natural father; she could continue her pregnancy to term and either keep the child or place it for adoption; or, she could obtain an illegal abortion, probably performed under conditions dangerous to her health. In November 1970, Referendum No. 20 was ratified. Under its terms a physician may lawfully terminate a woman’s pregnancy, with her prior consent, not more than 4 lunar months after conception. If, however, the woman is under 18 years of age, the prior consent of her legal guardian is required. Defendant contends that consent of a female minor’s legal guardian prior to abortion is an unconstitutional abridgment of her fundamental right of privacy in access to abortion. I do not agree.
In January 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 164, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147, 93 S. Ct. 705 (1973) and Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 35 L. Ed. 2d 201, 93 S. Ct. 739 (1973). As far as pertinent here, they held that “[f]or the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician.” While it is true that footnote 67 in Roe states the court did not decide the constitutionality of a provision requiring consent for a minor’s abortion, one cannot dismiss the impact of Roe and Doe. Actually the decisions provide valuable guidelines for an analysis of the question before us.
Simply stated, at page 152, Roe took the following approach: (1) “a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist under the constitution”; (2) at page 153 the Roe court stated: “This right of privacy ... is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy”; (3) regulations limiting a woman’s fundamental right to privacy in having an abortion may be justified only by a “ ‘compelling state interest,’ ” Roe at 155; (4) the compel*919ling point with respect to the state’s interest in the mother’s health “in the light of present medical knowledge, is at approximately the end of the first trimester” (at 163); (5) the compelling point with respect to the state’s interest in the potential life of the fetus is at viability, Roe at 163; (6) “for the period of pregnancy prior to this ‘compelling’ point, the attending physician, in consultation with his patient, is free to determine, without regulation by the State, that, in his medical judgment, the patient’s pregnancy should be terminated.” Roe at 163.
With this outline in mind, our first step is to determine whether the right of privacy guarantied by the constitution is one enjoyed equally by minors. Although the Supreme Court has been less than precise in search of a basis for an individual’s “right of privacy,” the majority in Roe, at page 153, indicates that this right is “founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action.” Since neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone, I would find that a minor has the same right to privacy as does an adult. In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 18 L. Ed. 2d 527, 87 S. Ct. 1428 (1967); see also Levy v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 68, 20 L. Ed. 2d 436, 88 S. Ct. 1509 (1968); Tinker v. Des Moines Ind. Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731, 89 S. Ct. 733 (1969). It would also appear that the minor’s right of privacy is broad enough to encompass a minor’s decision whether to terminate her pregnancy. Roe at 155. This right, however, is not absolute. It is subject to some limitation when the state’s interest in the protection of health, prenatal life and medical standards touching the same become dominant. Roe at 155.
Since we are dealing with statutory limitation of a fundamental right, the limitation may be justified only by a compelling state interest. While in Roe the court found the interest of the state in the health of a pregnant adult did not reach the compelling state interest stage until the end of the first trimester, I would find that when the mother is *920a minor the State’s interest is compelling from the moment of conception. This is not because the mortality rates for minors undergoing early abortions are necessarily higher than those of adults, but because the State is justifiably concerned both with the mental health of the minor and with the fact that the decision to have an abortion should be an'objective and informed one.
In this state, as in most, minors are not permitted to participate in some activities authorized for adults. A list of statutes providing for a difference in such events would unnecessarily lengthen this opinion. Nevertheless, they clearly illustrate that legislatures have regularly set minors apart for special consideration in the restriction of their activities. Further, courts have just as regularly recognized the validity of those special classifications. George v. United States, 196 F.2d 445 (9th Cir. 1952). As the United States Supreme Court said in Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 168, 88 L. Ed. 645, 64 S. Ct. 438 (1944), “the mere fact a state could not wholly prohibit this form of adult activity . . . does not mean it cannot do so for children.” In Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629, 20 L. Ed. 2d 195, 88 S. Ct. 1274 (1968), the Supreme Court again recognized that the power of the state to regulate the activities of children is greater than its control over similar conduct by adults. Although Ginsberg did not involve the state’s invasion of a minor’s constitutionally protected freedoms, the court recognized that such freedoms could be curtailed by the state when similar freedoms enjoyed by an adult could not.
One reason for this distinction is the realization that minors are not equipped mentally or emotionally to cope with many of the major decisions that may confront them. Harrigfeld v. District Court, 95 Idaho 540, 511 P.2d 822 (1973); see generally 42 Am. Jur. 2d Infants § 1 (1969). I see this as the primary justification for the requirement of consent by a legal guardian imposed by RCW 9.02.070.
*921It is important to note that the statute does not contain a “parental veto clause,” as it is characterized by appellant. The statute requires “the prior consent of her . . . legal guardian.” A parent’s refusal to an abortion would not necessarily foreclose that minor’s ability to obtain one. Resort to the protective facilities of the juvenile court is always available. Should that court find the parent’s refusal to consent constituted gross and willful neglect of medical care necessary for the minor’s well-being, it could declare the minor a dependent child, under RCW 13.04.010, and authorize the abortion, if it found this to be in the best interests of the child.1
I also feel that the statute in question reflects the interest of the state, not in the actual decision whether to terminate a pregnancy, but in the quality of that decision (which of course includes the availability of objective interested advice) and the manner of its implementation and its execution. The ramifications of a decision to terminate a pregnancy by abortion do not end with the abortion. Legal abortions, as provided by our statute, are still relatively new in our society. The psychiatric aspects of abortion as compared with a pregnancy carried to term by a minor female are inconclusive because the medical authorities are not in agreement. For example, one study recommends that patients age nine to twenty who undergo abortions need a systematic 5-year follow-up.2
I feel that the interest of the state in the quality of the minor’s abortion decision as well as in the mental health of a pregnant minor is of a compelling nature from the time of conception and justifies the State’s infringement on a minor’s right of privacy.
Hunter, Hamilton, and Wright, JJ., concur with Stafford, J.

A. Gallattee, M.D., Psychiatric Aspects of Abortion, 64 J.N.M.A. 308 (1972).