Minnesota state Sen. David Hann (R) says health care decisions should be made within the family, not by “strangers.” So he’s sponsored a bill that would change a current law that allows minors to see a doctor without their parents’ consent.
The bill would require minors to get parental consent before seeking medical care for sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse and pregnancy. It would also allow parents to have access to their child’s medical records. The bill has been approved by the Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which Hann chairs. No action has yet been taken by the House.
Hann told TPM the bill is not focused specifically on the issues of STD treatment or drug or alcohol abuse, but medical treatment of any kind.
“It changes the presumption that parents can only have access to children’s health care decisions with their children’s consent,” Hann said. “Most people are probably unaware that’s the case.”
The bill would allow minors to seek medical care without consent in the case of “sexual abuse, incest and physical abuse.” Otherwise, a minor’s consent is “invalid,” the bill states.
But what defines parental consent, exactly? Hann said it’s not specified in the bill, but that doctors “just need to do it.”
Hann has received a few emails from doctors who object to his proposal. The doctors told him they have received similar complaints from parents — which Hann finds “telling.”
“I suspect there are a number of people who make a good living treating minors without parental consent,” he said. “Just speculating.”
According to data compiled by a the Guttmacher Institute — a think tank that focuses on sexual and reproductive health — the bill would make Minnesota the only state in the U.S. to bar minors from getting STD treatment without parental consent, the Associated Press reports.
From the AP:
No state currently blocks minors from obtaining contraceptives without parental consent, although some set certain conditions such as minimum age, according to Guttmacher. The institute said when it comes to confidential prenatal care, 37 states plus the District of Columbia allow minor-only consent or place only slight conditions on it. Thirteen states have no relevant law.
Minnesota state Sen. John Marty (D) worries the bill could make minors uneasy about seeking medical care.
“We changed the law in order to protect these kids,” he told KSTP. “We did it in order to protect them, to make sure they’ll feel comfortable going to the doctor.”
“It would be a step backwards,” he added.
Hann, of course, disagrees.
“Given the kinds of concerns we’ve seen, and the sort of diminishing strength of families across the country, at some point, public policy has to decide whether families are good for kids,” he said.
