ental consent law took effect in June of 1993, with data for the six months after it took effect, and found that "[a]mong Mississippi residents having an abortion in the state, the ratio of minors to older women decreased by 13% . . . . However, this decline was largely offset by a 32% increase in the ratio of minors to older women among Mississippi residents traveling to other states for abortion services."(24) Based on the available data, the study suggests that the Mississippi parental consent law appeared to have "little or no effect on the abortion rate among minors but a large increase in the proportion of minors who travel to other states to have abortions, along with a decrease in minors coming from other states to Mississippi."(25)E. VirginiaGrace S. Sparks, executive director of the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood, predicted in February of 1997 that if Virginia were to pass a parental notification law, teenagers would travel out of state for abortions. "In every state where they've passed parental notification, . . . there's been an increase in out-of-state abortions," she said, adding, "I suspect that that's what will happen in Virginia, that teen-agers who cannot tell their parents . . . will go out of state and have abortions . . . ."(26) Virginia's parental notification law took effect on July 1, 1997. According to a recent article in The Washington Post, initial reports indicate that abortions performed on Virginia minors dropped 20 percent during the first five months that the law was in effect (from 903 abortions during the same time period in 1996 to approximately 700 abortions in 1997).(27) The article suggests, however, that Virginia teenagers are traveling to the District of Columbia in order to obtain an abortion without involving their parent. In fact, the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which runs a toll-free national abortion hotline, said that calls from Virginia teenagers seeking information on how t...
