On January 1, 2000, Texas began enforcement of a law that requires physicians to notify a parent of a minor child seeking an abortion at least 48 hours before the procedure.

Today, March 9th, The New England Journal of Medicine is publishing a statistical study entitled Changes in Abortions and Births and the Texas Parental Notification Law by Theodore Joyce, Ph.D., Robert Kaestner, Ph.D., and Silvie Colman, B.B.A. The study concerns itself with analyzing abortion statistical changes due to Texas' recently passed parental notification law.

:::UPDATE::: I've tacked on additional material at the bottom of this post.

I can't put up a link to the Report yet, nor can I quote from it but as soon as I can get my hands on a copy I'm going to update this post. This story is important I feel, as it is going to be used politically to "sell" the amazing and astounding success of parental notification laws. In fact a few of the stories already available here and here don't tell a reader much at all and I find them rather misleading. If you have the time and this issue concerns you, read the longer piece linked below, and then back up to this spot and read these two shorter pieces with a critical eye.

Also, please keep in mind that the study does not examine the parental notification law recently passed in 2005 (SB 419) requiring girls under 18 to obtain parental permission before having an abortion. That's a more recent law. The study is looking at an earlier law requiring "notification only" that was passed in 2000. I know it's hard to keep them all straight, there are so many, and I apologize for the plethora of anti-choice laws issuing from the Lone Star State.

Study: Texas parental law might lower '