No, Not That Kind of Hotline ...

From my new article at RH Reality Check:

If you are not quite 18 years old and living in Illinois, if you are pregnant, if you need to terminate your pregnancy and if you know that telling your family is not a safe or wise choice, then, as of this summer, you have only a single legal option.

You need to navigate a courtroom obstacle course to get a judicial bypass for your abortion.

And Leah Bartelt wants to be very clear about this: a judicial bypass is not a way to skip around the state’s new parental notification law, but rather, it is the very essence of the law. Bartelt says:

The media reporting on the (Illinois parental) notification law are saying that the ACLU is helping (minors) ‘exploit loopholes’ in the law,” said Bartelt, who is the reproductive rights staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois. “This is incredibly frustrating because this is in the law. To say we’re exploiting loopholes is dishonest.

She added, “This isn’t bypassing the law; this is a due process right that the young women have.”

But let's think for a second: Imagine you're a minor in Illinois or one of the other thirty-four states that require parental notification or consent for abortions. Imagine you can't tell your parents about your situation; maybe one of your parents is responsible for impregnating you, or maybe they will kick you out of the house.

You have the right to a judicial bypass, but how in holy hell are you going to navigate the court system all by your 15 year old self--and while keeping it all private from your community?

That's where the hotlines come in. I spoke with the fascinating people at Jane's Due Process (in Texas) and the Illinois Judicial Bypass Coordination Project (in, um, Illinois), both of which host hotlines staffed by trained volunteers for teens to call when they need help. The hotline provides young women with information on the regulations, timelines, who legally needs to be notified and who does not. It also connects callers with a network of trained pro bono lawyers.

The context these hotlines come in, and what they're able to do, is nothing less than extraordinary. The work they do is uncommon, and as is evident, so crucial.