A 16-year-old female is in your office because she has just found out she is She discusses her options and asks you to refer her for an abortion. She states that parents do not know she is pregnant and she does not want them to know.
What should you do?
a. Refcr her for the abortion without parental notitication.
b. Make a “reasonable effort” to contact the parents, but still refer for the abortion if you cannot contact them.
Do not refer for abortion without parcntal consent.
Seek a court order declaring her emancipated.
Strongly encourage her to discuss the issue with her parents.
Explanation
(e) Strongly encourage her to discuss the issue with her parents.
Although competent adurts have an unfetterecr legal right to abortion within the first trimester, this right is not universal for a minor. A minor is generally defined as a person below the age of 18. The necessity of parental consent or at least notification is a mired issue across states nationally. Some states require parental notification and some states do not. Hence, as a board examination, which is given nationally, there is no single clear answer Unlike the bar examination for lawyers, physicians take virtu_ ally no state specific examination. \4ren you pass USMLE or the Board of Internal Medicine, it is valid in every state.
The only thing that is always clear is that we should strongly encourage the patient herself to have the discussion with her parents. Many of the boards will want an answer indicating discussion before action so you will be trained into trying to build consensus. Evcn if you are within your rights to walk up to a brain_dead patient and remove the ventilator without consent of the family, the boards wiI alwavs want vou to answer "cliscuss with the famiiy’, first if that is one of the options.