Amy Bach

About the author: Amy Bach is a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Miami, Florida.

A 1992 Supreme Court decision mandated that a state may require a young woman under the age of eighteen to either obtain her parents' consent to have an abortion or the consent of a judge. Most states have since enacted a parental-involvement law, and these laws have made it extremely difficult for a young woman to exercise her right to choose an abortion. In many cases, young women face staunchly pro-life judges, some of whom appoint an attorney to represent the fetus. Parental-involvement laws are wrong because they support the rights of the unborn over the rights of the mother.

In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court ruled that a state may require...