One of the most important issues facing adolescents involves the extent to which their right to privacy will be respected, and that right is implicated in a broad variety of potential contexts and circumstances. In the United States, a key area where this issue has been litigated has been in the context of abortion. This context is of significance in and of itself as well as for demonstrating how the legal system approaches the rights of adolescents. As a result, Bellotti v. Baird (1979), the leading Supreme Court case dealing with adolescents’ rights to access abortions without the involvement of their parents, is one of the most important United States Supreme Court decisions dealing with the adolescent period. The case and this area of law address the fundamental issue of the extent to which adolescents can have rights of their own and, equally importantly, the extent to which they can control the exercise of those rights.
Bellottiinvolved a Massachusetts law requiring parents to...
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References
Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U.S. 622 (1979).
Hodgson v. Minnesota, 497 U.S. 417 (1990).
Levesque, R. J. R. (2000). Adolescents, sex, and the law: Preparing adolescents for responsible citizenship. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Abortion Rights. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_762
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