a. For example, the March 1999-February 2000 Yellow Pages for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania contain advertisements from three New Jersey abortionists declaring "No Parental Consent Required." A Rockville, Maryland abortionist ran a similar advertisement in the May 1998-April 1999 Yellow Pages for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Such advertisements have appeared in telephone directories for Wilkes-Barre and Dallas, Scranton, Clarks Summit, and Carbondale, Bethlehem, Allentown, York, and Erie.B. MissouriIn 1997, a study in the American Journal of Public Health reported that a leading abortion provider in Missouri refers minors out of state for abortions if the girls do not want to involve their parents. Reproductive Health Services, which performs over half of the abortions performed in Missouri, refers minors to the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois. Research reveals that based on the available data the odds of a minor traveling out of state for an abortion increased by over 50 percent when Missouri's parental consent law went into effect. Furthermore, compared to older women, underage girls were significantly more likely to travel out of state to have their abortions.(17)A 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch news report confirms that the Hope Clinic in Illinois continues to attract underage girls seeking abortions without parental involvement.(18) A clinic counselor estimates that she sees two girls each week seeking to avoid their home state's parental involvement law. One recent example was a 16 year-old girl from Missouri who had called abortion clinics in St. Louis and learned that parental consent was required before a minor could obtain an abortion. According to the report, the Hope Clinic performed 3,200 abortions on out-of-state women last year, and the clinic's executive director estimates that that number is 45% of the total abortions performed at the clinic. The executive director also estimates that 13% of the clinic's clients...
