When seventeen-year-old Becky Bell of Indianapolis learned that she was pregnant in 1988, she decided to have an abortion without telling her parents. However, because Indiana law requires a minor to have her parents’ consent before she can have an abortion, Becky’s options were limited: She could have appeared before a judge to request a judicial bypass, which would have allowed her to obtain an abortion without her parents’ knowledge; she could have traveled 110 miles to neighboring Kentucky, which did not have a parental consent law; or she could have tried to obtain an abortion from a less reputable clinic in her home state— one willing to break the law. Becky chose an illegal abortion. Less than a week later she was dead, some say due to complications from the abortion.

Abortion rights supporters often use...