The Impact of Laws Requiring Parental Involvement for

n In 2008, 34 states had laws in effect that mandated parental involvement in minors ’ abortions. n A literature search identified 29 studies of the impact of these laws on a range of outcomes. n The clearest documented impact of parental involvement laws is an increase in the number of minors traveling outside their home states to obtain abortion services in states that do not mandate parental involvement or that have less restrictive laws. n Many studies reported a decline in minors ’ abortion rate associated with parental involve-ment laws. However, most of these studies did not measure abortions among minors who leave the state, or stop coming into the state, because of the law. Studies in Mississippi and Massachusetts, which incorporated data on minors traveling out of state, found no effect on the abortion rate, while one in Texas suggested that parental involvement laws lower abortion rates and raise birthrates if minors must travel long distances to access providers in states without such laws. n Several state studies found no short-term impact on pregnancy rates. n Many studies had serious limitations, including incomplete data, inadequate controls for fac-tors other than the imposition of the law and lack of statistical power because they measure