are minors. C. MassachusettsMassachusetts has also seen an increase in out-of-state abortions performed on its teenage residents since the state's parental consent law went into effect in April of 1981, according to a published study and anecdotal information.(19) A 1986 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that in the four months prior to implementation of the parental consent law, an average of 29 Massachusetts minors obtained out-of-state abortions each month (in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York -- data for Maine was not available).(20) After the parental consent law was implemented, however, the average jumped to between 90 and 95 out-of-state abortions per month (using data from the five states of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and Maine) -- representing one-third of the abortions obtained by Massachusetts' minors.(21) The study noted that due to what the authors described as "astute marketing," one abortion clinic in New Hampshire was able to nearly double the monthly average of abortions performed on Massachusetts minors (from 14 in 1981 to 27 in 1982). The abortionist "began advertising in the 1982 Yellow Pages of metropolitan areas along the northern Massachusetts border, stating 'consent for minors not required.'"(22) In April of 1991, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts estimated that approximately 1,200 Massachusetts minor girls travel out of state for abortions each year, the majority of them to New Hampshire. Planned Parenthood said that surveys of New Hampshire clinics revealed an average of 100 appointments per month by Massachusetts minors.(23) D. MississippiA 1995 study of the effect of Mississippi's parental consent law revealed that Mississippi has also experienced an increase in the number of minors traveling out of state for abortion. The study, published in Family Planning Perspectives, compared data for the five months before the par...
