Reproductive Health Legal Assistance Project (RHLAP) Laws Regarding Minors - Instructions

Project Overview:

Patients need care, and clinicians both want and are obligated to serve them. However, post-Dobbs, the state-level legal landscape has changed rapidly and providers need clear and reliable legal guidance in order to make decisions about patient care. 

At the request of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) has mobilized attorneys to provide daily-updated legal guidance to front-line reproductive health care providers. At this stage, L4GG has launched a daily updated Policy Resource Hub for Reproductive Health containing data on reproductive health law in every U.S. state and territory. As we expand this project, we are working to continuously add to the data contained in the Resource Hub. 

The project that you will be working on is providing well-cited answers on the research questions listed below, relating to minor access to abortion in your assigned state or territory. This research will then be reviewed by our in-house attorneys and turned into a summary of the law for each state. These summaries will be added to our Policy Resource Hub as a daily-updated resource for providers and advocates. Your work is an absolutely critical first step to getting necessary information directly into the hands of the people who need it most. 

Instructions for Participating Attorneys:

STEP 1: RESEARCH ANSWERS TO STATE-LEVEL LEGAL QUESTIONS

  • Review the below research questions, each of which relate to the legality of providing abortion care to minors in your assigned state or territory:

    • State/Territory. Select your assigned state or territory

    • Are there clauses in your state’s statutes that apply to minors under a certain age who are seeking abortions in your state?

      • If yes, is there a parental notification or a parental consent requirement?

        • If yes, what is the parental notification or parental consent requirement?

      • If yes, are there specific reporting requirements unique to young patients?

        • If yes, please summarize the specific reporting requirements unique to young patients.

      • If yes, is there a judicial bypass procedure in your state that would allow young people to proceed with an abortion without parental notification?

        • If yes, please summarize the criteria for judicial bypass (for example, in cases of abuse, incest, or emancipation).

  • As you are researching and drafting your responses, you will find and cite to authoritative sources such as case law (including ongoing litigation), statutes, regulations or administrative rules, executive orders and state policies. 

    • Please keep your notes and draft responses to the questions in a Word document or Google doc as you go. 

    • For each Citation you identify during your research, keep track of the following information in your Word document:

      • Bluebook citation

      • Public website URL where the source material can be viewed online (a free site, such as Justia or a state legislative site, rather than a paid subscription site like Westlaw or Lexis) 

      • Type of Citation (constitutional provision, case law, statute, and so forth)

STEP 2: DRAFT ANSWERS TO STATE-LEVEL LEGAL QUESTIONS 

  • Once you have concluded your research, you will use that research to provide answers to each of the questions listed below in the form provided

  • For each answer, you will be asked to provide a citation along with a link to that citation, so that our in-house attorneys can easily review your research materials and determine what will be included in the final state-level summary for the Policy Resource Hub 

  • Note: as you are researching, please be aware that your state may have multiple statutes regulating similar subjects (for example, many states have multiple overlapping abortion bans). We ask that you please be thorough in your research and ensure that each source of law is captured. 

    • Research note: sometimes it is the case that a statute has not been formally repealed, but that it is not currently operative or enforceable because of litigation; if this is the case, please let us know and cite to the relevant case and holding. 

  • If you are unsure whether something should be included, please err on the side of over-inclusion, and our attorneys will decide what should ultimately be published. 

STEP 3: SUBMIT YOUR ANSWERS

  • Once you have completed your research (and after you have already drafted answers to the questions in your Word or Google document), please submit your responses (with citations/links) using this online form.

Questions? Email probono@L4GG.org.

Tools:

  • When conducting this research, we request your assistance to ensure that the law is accurate, up-to-date, and based on all applicable state law – all relevant statutes, any relevant regulations implementing that statute, and any relevant caselaw that might affect the meaning of the statute.  We also separately request public versions of these laws, regulations, and cases so that readers of our reports (advocates, legislators, and the public) may freely and easily access the sources we cite. Please use the tools we describe below:

    • Your Westlaw or Lexis Account.  We request that you do all research in your Westlaw or Lexis Account.  These are the most accurate and up-to-date, and importantly include references to the relevant case law and often regulations.

    • Secondary sources that may help you with this research include: 

    • IMPORTANT NOTE RE: SECONDARY SOURCES: If you use secondary sources for your research, you must independently confirm that any information upon which you are relying is up to date.

Once you have completed your research, please submit your responses (with citations/links) using this online form. Thank you for contributing to this important project.