2008 Legislative Agenda Update

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Oppose legislation that would restrict adolescent access to preventative health care services, including bills that would require minors to be accompanied by a parent in order to receive family planning services.

• House Bill 526 (Rep. Barry Loudermilk, 14th) would amend the state code regarding family planning services to require unemancipated minors (individuals who are under the age of 18 and unmarried) to be accompanied by a parent or guardian in order to receive referral services or contraceptives from any state-funded public health department or agency. The bill was introduced in 2007, the first year of the two-year session, and referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee.



• Surveys of teenagers in family planning clinics find that a majority of teens involve their parents in their health care decisions. Requiring parents to be present to request referrals or access to contraception at local clinics would be a significant barrier to other teens, though, who do not feel they can confide in their parents.



• A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that only 1% of adolescents visiting family planning clinics would stop having sex if parental involvement were mandatory for access to contraception, while many would delay or stop seeking services altogether.
  
  
• Title X, the primary source of family planning funds in Georgia, mandates that confidential services be provided to all clients regardless of age. Passage of HB 526 would jeopardize over $8 million in
federal Title X funding in Georgia.


• The teen pregnancy rate has declined by 30% in the past decade in Georgia and nationwide, due to teens delaying sexual activity and using contraception more effectively when they do have sex, with the majority of the decline being attributable to improved use of contraception.

TAKE ACTION: Contact your state legislators and the members of the House Health and Human Services Committee, where HB 526 has been referred, to voice your opposition to this bill that would have a devastating impact on teens and their ability to prevent unintended pregnancies in our state.  Let them know that research demonstrates that helping adolescents postpone sex while equipping sexually-active youth with medical information and contraception on a confidential basis is the best strategy to reduce adolescent pregnancy, abortion, STDs and HIV/AIDS in Georgia.