Abortion Rights

Overview

Controversy often surrounds efforts to recognize adolescents’ rights, partly because adolescents are deemed as needing parental guidance and as lacking the capacity to make sound decisions. These controversies arose most acutely in efforts to recognize adolescents’ right to control their abortion decisions – decisions to terminate pregnancies. In addressing the set of issues that arises in this context, the Supreme Court clearly articulated when adolescents could control abortion decisions and crafted an approach that can be used to recognize and develop other important rights for adolescents. That articulation reveals that adolescents’ rights can be recognized, but that the protections they receive likely will remain limited, particularly when compared to adults’ rights.

Adolescents’ Abortion Rights

One of the most important issues facing adolescents involves the extent to which their right to privacy will be respected, and that right is implicated in a broad variety of...