Court Opinion

ID: 9428230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:23:12.126988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:12.377713
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
concurring in the judgment.
As the Court points out, this is a class action in which the appellant represents all unmarried “ ‘minor women who are suffering unwanted pregnancies and desire to terminate the pregnancies but may not do so’ because of their physicians’ insistence on complying with § 76-7-304 (2)” of the Utah *421Code. Ante, at 401. The Utah Supreme Court held that the statute may validly be applied to all members of that class. This appeal therefore squarely presents the question whether that holding is consistent with the Constitution of the United States. The Court, however, declines to reach this question and instead decides the narrower question presented by the appellant's particular factual situation. Because I believe we have a duty to answer the broader question decided by the Utah Supreme Court, I am unable to join the opinion of the Court.
In Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U. S. 52, 72-75 (1976), the Court held that a pregnant minor’s right to make the decision to obtain an abortion may not be conditioned on parental consent. My dissent from that holding, id., at 102-105, does not qualify my duty to respect it as a part of our law. See Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U. S. 622, 652-656 (1979) (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment). However, as I noted in Bellotti, neither that ease nor Danforth “determines the constitutionality of a statute which does no more than require notice to the parents, without affording them or any other third party an absolute veto.” 443 U. S., at 654, n. 1. Since the outcome in this case is not controlled by Danforth, the principles that I considered dispositive of the parental consent issue in that case plainly dictate that the Utah statute now before us be upheld.
The fact that a state statute may have some impact upon a minor’s exercise of his or her rights begins, rather than ends, the constitutional inquiry. Once the statute’s impact is identified, it must be evaluated in light of the state interests underlying the statute. The state interest that the Utah statute at issue in this case attempts to advance is essentially the same state interest considered in Danforth. As I noted in Danforth, that interest is fundamental and substantial:
“The State’s interest in the welfare of its young citizens justifies a variety of protective measures. Because he *422may not foresee the consequences of his decision, a minor may not make an enforceable bargain. He may not lawfully work or travel where he pleases, or even attend exhibitions of constitutionally protected adult motion pictures. Persons below a certain age may not marry without parental consent. Indeed, such consent is essential even when the young woman is already pregnant. The State’s interest in protecting a young person from harm justifies the imposition of restraints on his or her freedom even though comparable restraints on adults would be constitutionally impermissible. Therefore, the holding in Roe v. Wade [410 U. S. 113 (1973)] that the abortion decision is entitled to constitutional protection merely emphasizes the importance of the decision; it does not lead to the conclusion that the state legislature has no power to enact legislation for the purpose of protecting a young pregnant woman from the consequences of an incorrect decision.
“The abortion decision is, of course, more important than the decision to attend or to avoid an adult motion picture, or the decision to work long hours in a factory. It is not necessarily any more important than the decision to run away from home or the decision to marry. But even if it is the most important kind of a decision a young person may ever make, that assumption merely enhances the quality of the State’s interest in maximizing the probability that the decision be made correctly and with full understanding of the consequences of either alternative.” 428 U. S., at 102-103.
In my opinion, the special importance of a young woman’s abortion decision, emphasized by Justice Marshall in dissent, post, at 435-436, provides a special justification for reasonable state efforts intended to ensure that the decision be wisely made. Such reasonable efforts surely may include a requirement that an abortion be procured only after consul*423tation with a licensed physician. And, because “the most significant consequences of the [abortion] decision are not medical in character,” 428 U. S., at 103, the State unquestionably has an interest in ensuring that a young woman receive other appropriate consultation as well. In my opinion, the quality of that interest is plainly sufficient to support a state legislature’s determination that such appropriate consultation should include parental advice.
Of course, a conclusion that the Utah statute is invalid would not prevent young pregnant women from voluntarily seeking the advice of their parents prior to making the abortion decision. But the State may legitimately decide that such consultation should be made more probable by ensuring that parents are informed of their daughter’s decision:
“If there is no parental-[notice] requirement, many minors will submit to the abortion procedure without ever informing their parents. An assumption that the parental reaction will be hostile, disparaging, or violent no doubt persuades many children simply to bypass parental counsel which would in fact be loving, supportive, and, indeed, for some indispensable. It is unrealistic, in my judgment, to assume that every parent-child relationship is either (a) so perfect that communication and accord will take place routinely or (b) so imperfect that the absence of communication reflects the childJs correct prediction that the parent will . . . [act] arbitrarily to further a selfish interest rather than the child’s interest. A state legislature may conclude that most parents will be primarily interested in the welfare of their children,[1] and further, that the imposition *424of a parental-[notice] requirement is an appropriate method of giving the parents an opportunity to foster that welfare by helping a pregnant distressed child to make and to implement a correct decision.” Id., at 103-104 (Stevens, J.).
Utah’s interest in its parental-notice statute is not diminished by the fact that there can be no guarantee that meaningful parent-child consultation will actually occur. Good-faith compliance with the statute’s requirements would tend to facilitate communication between daughters and parents regarding the abortion decision. The possibility that some parents will not react with compassion and understanding upon being informed of their daughter’s predicament or that, even if they are receptive, they will incorrectly advise her, does not undercut the legitimacy of the State’s attempt to establish a procedure that will enhance the probability that a pregnant young woman exercise as wisely as possible her right to make the abortion decision.
The fact that certain members of the class of unmarried “minor women who are suffering unwanted pregnancies and desire to terminate the pregnancies” may actually be emancipated or sufficiently mature to make a well-reasoned abor*425tion decision does not, in my view, undercut the validity of the Utah statute. As I stated in Danforth, a state legislature has constitutional power to utilize, for purposes of implementing a parental-notice requirement, a yardstick based upon the chronological age of unmarried pregnant women. That this yardstick will be imprecise or even unjust in particular cases does not render its use by a state legislature impermissible under the Federal Constitution. 428 U. S., at 104-105. Accordingly, I would reach the question reserved by the Court and hold that the Utah parental-notice statute is constitutionally valid as applied to all members of the certified class.2
Because my view in this case, as in Danforth, is that the State’s interest in protecting a young pregnant woman from the consequences of an incorrect abortion decision is sufficient to justify the parental-notice requirement, I agree that the decision of the Utah Supreme Court should be affirmed.

 My conclusion, in this case and in Danforth, that a state legislature may rationally decide that most parents will, when informed of their daughter’s pregnancy, act with her welfare in mind is consistent with the “pages of human experience that teach that parents generally do act in the child’s best interests” relied upon by the Court in Parham v. J. R., *424442 U. S. 584, 602-603 (1979). It is also consistent with Justice Brennan’s opinion in Parham, which I joined. Id., at 625-639.
As the Court noted in Parham, the presumption that parents act in the best interests of their children may be rebutted by “experience and reality.” Id., at 602-603. In my opinion, nothing in the fact that a minor child has become pregnant, and therefore may be confronted with the abortion decision, undercuts the general validity of the presumption. However, when parents decide to surrender custody of their child to a mental hospital and thereby destroy the ongoing family relationship, that very decision raises an inference that parental authority is not being exercised in the child’s best interests. See id., at 631-632 (Brennan, J., dissenting in part). Accordingly, while the abortion decision and the commitment decision are of comparable gravity, reliance upon the’ “pages of human experience” is, in my judgment, more appropriate in the former case than in the latter.

 The Court’s unwillingness to decide whether the Utah statute may constitutionally be applied to the entire class certified by the state courts presumably rests on the assumption that requiring notice to the parents of a mature or emancipated minor might prevent such a minor from obtaining an abortion. See ante, at 406. Almost by definition, however, a woman intellectually and emotionally capable of making important decisions without parental assistance also should be capable of ignoring any parental disapproval. Furthermore, if every minor with the wisdom of an adult has a constitutional right to be treated as an adult, a uniform minimum voting age is surely suspect. Instead of simply enforcing general rules promulgated by the legislature, perhaps the judiciary should grant" hearings to all young persons desirous of establishing their status as mature, emancipated minors instead of confining that privilege to unmarried pregnant young women.