‘Fraught with consequences': Florida advocates discuss barriers to abortion access for teens
As the future of abortion rights in the U.S. remains top of mind for millions awaiting what could be a monumental Supreme Court ruling this summer, a lesser-known abortion law in Florida has been the subject of controversy locally for years.
"It's this system that doesn't end and just continuously harms families and destroys young people's lives,” said Annie Filkowski, policy director for Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.
"We think this is a very smart law. You can't even get your ears pierced or go on a field trip without parent's consent for a minor, and yet we're going to allow a child to undergo a major surgical procedure?" said John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council.
For decades, teenagers who wanted to get an abortion in Florida have been required to notify a parent before they can get one.
That requirement got stricter in 2020.
Now instead of just notifying a parent, teens must get their parent's consent.
The only way teens can access abortion without telling their parents is by petitioning their local court to grant them what's called a judicial waiver or bypass.
"I just thought, this is what I'm going to have to do,” said Stephanie Lorain Pineiro, a woman who got a judicial waiver as a teen.
Pineiro went through the judicial bypass process back in 2009 when she was 17.
"I was set that I needed to get an abortion. Nothing was going to change my mind,” Pineiro said.
Pineiro said her parents made clear they were against abortion and she feared her father would become violent if he found out.
"So I called a phone number that somebody posted about on the message boards and the line was busy, busy, busy. I called for like three days until I finally got somebody on the phone and they connected me with a pro bono attorney,” Pineiro said.
Heather Morcroft is one of those attorneys.
"Basically, since they became available, I've been doing them,” Morcroft said.
Morcroft said the judicial waiver process is unique because it requires the teen to prove to a judge they are "sufficiently mature" enough to decide to get an abortion.
The law says the judge should consider the minor's age, intelligence, emotional development, credibility and ability to "accept responsibility.”
"It's up to the judge to hear the testimony and make a determination as to whether or not the young woman is credible, whether or not what she's testifying to meets the standards of the statute,” Morcroft said.
Pineiro said she brought everything from old police reports involving her father to her school report cards.
“I showed my grades. That I had just started college early. That I had good grades. I showed my resume. That I had a job already. It was saying like, I deserve to live my life,” Pineiro said.
In the end, Pineiro was granted a judicial waiver and was able to get an abortion.
But she says the whole process was extremely traumatic.
"No one's supposed to go through that just to get health care. No one should have to scour message boards and read the internet to get hope to being able to access their bodily autonomy,” Pineiro said.
That is why abortion rights advocates continue to fight against the process, arguing teens should have access to abortion just like adults.
"The last place they want to be is a courtroom with often times an old white man deciding whether or not they are going to have to become a parent or not,” Filkowski said.
But anti-abortion rights advocates said the process needs to be in place to make sure teens know exactly what they're choosing to do.
"This is an irreversible decision and it's fraught with medical, psychological and all kinds of consequences. So it makes sense to put a child through that kind of decision-making if the child refused to allow parents to be involved,” Stemberger said.
For now, the judicial bypass process in Florida remains essentially the same as it was when Pineiro went through it in 2009.
Abortion rights advocates continue to work to abolish the process while anti-abortion rights advocates work to make it stricter.