minnesotastoryThe following comes from a June 25 story on LifeNews.com.

Teen abortions in Minnesota have declined dramatically since the state enacted a law requiring parental notification before minors undergo abortions.  Tomorrow is the 24th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Minnesota’s parental notification requirement.

The law (MN Statute 144.343), strongly supported by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, was passed by the Legislature with large bipartisan majorities in 1981.  It requires that both parents be notified at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed on a minor girl.  The measure includes a judicial bypass procedure, which is required by the courts, and exceptions for rare cases.

Minnesota’s law was in place until 1986, when it was enjoined by a federal district court.  The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled on June 25, 1990, in the case of Hodgson v. Minnesota, upholding both the two-parent and 48-hour requirements.  The law went back into effect that year….

The annual number of minor abortions in Minnesota peaked at 2,327 in 1980, the year before the parental notification law first went into effect.  Teen abortions then began to steadily decline.  Since 1989, the last full year before the Supreme Court ruling, abortions performed on minors have dropped 71.7 percent.  In 2012 (the latest year for which data is available), minor abortions fell to 403, the lowest number on record (statistics for minors go back to 1975) and only 3.8 percent of all abortions….

To read the entire story, click here.