Minors' Consent Resources
Minors' Consent Resources
Protecting Adolescents: Ensuring Access to Care and Reporting Sexual Activity and Abuse
In the November 2004 Journal of Adolescent Health, Protecting Adolescents: Ensuring Access to Care and Reporting Sexual Activity and Abuse presents guidance and principles in the development of public policy concerning adolescents' access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health services. The position statement was developed jointly by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine.
The statement includes supporting commentary on state requirements for reporting sexual abuse and sexual activity, the number of sexually active adolescents, communication between adolescents and health professionals, clinical assessment of sexual abuse and sexual coercion, access to confidential health care, and legal requirements and interpretation of laws that may impede provider/patient relationships. Protecting adolescents: Ensuring access to care and reporting sexual activity and abuse. Journal of Adolescent Health 35(5):420-423.
State Minor Consent Laws: A Summary, 2nd Edition (2003)
The Center for Adolescent Health & the Law has produced a 200-page monograph. The monograph contains summaries of the state minor consent laws for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also contains related information about the legal framework for consent and confidentiality in adolescent health care, summaries of confidentiality and disclosure provisions in the state minor consent laws, and appendices listing background resources. Order the monograph.
Minors’ Consent Research
The contribution of sexual and reproductive health services to the fight against HIV/AIDS: A review (PDF)—Reproductive Health Matters
Minors' Consent Articles
New Study: Parents' Attitudes Toward Minors' Confidential Access to Contraception
Does Parent Notification Affect Reproductive Health Services for Minors?—The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools
