INDIANAPOLIS — A proposal that would give 16- and 17-year-old pregnant girls the authority to make their own decisions about their care will get new life after a committee vote Wednesday.
The proposal, Senate Bill 352, didn't pass the full Senate last month by a vote of 24-25. But a similar House Bill passed the full chamber unanimously. It will now head to the full Senate, where the members will get another shot at voting.
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The bill would allow the teenager to receive pre-natal, labor or postpartum care (up to 60 days) even if they did not have a guardian with them.
If a teenager goes to a hospital with an emergency related to her pregnancy, or is in immediate labor, she will get care whether her guardian is there to consent or not. But it’s the non-emergency care for which hospitals need a guardian’s consent.
“A parent has to come and consent for her to get an epidural, or any type of routine care,” Dr. Mary Pell Abernathy said in January.
Abernathy is an IU Health doctor who specializes in maternal and fetal medicine. She spoke in favor of the bill in Wednesday's committee hearing.
Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, said the bill wouldn’t necessarily do anything for the infant mortality rate. She wasn't present in Wednesday's committee hearing.
“What [the bill] does, is it takes away the parent’s right to be involved in their 16- to 18-year-old’s pregnancy,” Brown said in January. “It takes away the parent’s consent. That’s all this bill does. … You may have driven your daughter to school, you may have coached her in soccer since she was in fifth grade, or driven her to dance. You may have kissed her goodnight and you may have taken pictures of her prom. But if she becomes pregnant between the ages of 16 and 18, and this bill passes, then you’re not going to be allowed to be involved with that.”
Under current law, once the teenager gives birth, she becomes the parent of consent for the infant, which creates a strange loophole, Abernathy said. The teenager still wouldn’t be able to provide consent for her own postpartum care.
“You’re allowing her to consent for this infant, but she can’t consent for her own care,” Abernathy said. “That’s where we’re just trying to correct that situation.”
The bill passed the Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services, 7-0.
