In Pennsylvania, young people who cannot obtain, or do not want to seek, parental consent for an abortion have the right to request permission through the courts during a process called “judicial bypass.”
You do not need a lawyer for a judicial bypass proceeding, but it can help. WLP attorneys represent judicial bypass clients and may be able to help you at no cost.
The pandemic generally created more obstacles to abortion care, especially for young people. In response, we advocated for the health, safety, and rights of young people seeking bypass by working with county courts to minimize any delay in judicial bypass proceedings and to ensure prompt and expeditious hearings remain available during COVID-19. Traveling long distances and making multiple trips could be an absolute barrier for some young people pre-pandemic, so we tirelessly worked to develop bypass protocols designed to remove some of those travel-related obstacles.
This advocacy gave us the opportunity to improve the system as we worked toward ways to expand access to abortion care while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
WLP attorney Christine Castro, who represents judicial bypass clients, recently shared her insight into the ways the pandemic has changed young people’s access to abortion care.
“While we’d prefer a world without forced parental involvement laws (or global pandemics), one of the silver linings that has come out of this advocacy is that young people seeking abortion in Pennsylvania, specifically in Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania, can do remote video hearings to obtain a judicial bypass,” says WLP staff attorney Christine Castro. “The availability of remote hearings has dramatically changed abortion access for young people navigating judicial bypass.”
Read the rest of Christine’s post on how our work responding to the pandemic has changed young Pennsylvanians’ access to judicial bypass here.
Do you know anyone who needs to know their rights regarding accessing abortion?
Click here for a downloadable flyer that has more detailed information about judicial bypass in Pennsylvania.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
Sign up for WLP’s Action Alerts. Stay up to date by following us on twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
August 2021: Our physical offices are still closed but we are OPEN and working to serve your needs. Contact us here.
