Pregnancy Notification Policy Alarms Some Health Experts

Virginia gives minors the same rights as adults in seeking contraception and prenatal services but requires consent of a parent for an abortion. In the District, minors can consent to an abortion as well as health-care services such as contraception and prenatal care, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit agency that focuses on sexual health.

Last school year, 17 high school students in Howard told school nurses they were pregnant; 22 did so the year before, said Donna Heller, health services coordinator. She said there may be more pregnant students who don't come forward or who leave school.

Howard school board members say the decision on notifying parents formalized what has been an unofficial practice for years.

"We wanted to make it clear: If the student does not tell the parents, the school system will advise the parents," Aquino said. "Parents have a right to that information."

Mark Blom, the system's general counsel, said school health offices should not be regarded as clinical settings, where the state's minor consent law would apply.

Andrew Gavelek, the eight-member board's student representative and a senior at Reservoir High, cast the lone no vote. He talked to 40 female students and said they unanimously opposed the policy.

"If they were going to tell their parents, they would want to do it themselves," he said.

Some parents and health experts remain divided. "There are just certain things -- like pregnancy -- that cannot be kept from parents," said Ellicia B. Chau, a parent.

"Keep in mind that if a school system employee had knowledge that my child was pregnant and did not tell me and something awful happened, the school system would be held liable," parent Stephanie Foster told school board members at a December meeting.

Tina L. Cheng, chief of general pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Johns Hopkins University, said research has shown that significant numbers of sexually active adolescents said they would stop using health-care services if confronted with mandatory parental notification.

"It may not be in the best interests in some circumstances for the parents to know up front," Cheng said.

Rosemary Mortimer, a nurse on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and a longtime education activist in Howard, said: "I believe students will deliver without prenatal care because they're afraid to tell anyone. It's like putting an 'A' for a scarlet letter on a young lady."