US: Foster Care’s Conflicting Policies For Sexual and Reproductive Health (Commentary)
Imprint – May 18, 2023
The privacy and reproductive rights of foster youth across the country are often overlooked, overruled or mired in confusion: Under some state child welfare policies, teenagers living in group homes can have their birth control pills confiscated. Abortions that are legally available to all minors can require a state commissioner’s permission for young people in foster care. And in at least one part of the country, foster parents must submit “Critical Incident Reports” on “active sexual behavior.” In states from Maine to Alaska, child welfare agencies require medical authorizations that advocates say are at odds with broader rights guaranteed to all minors, an Imprint investigation has found. Part two of The Imprint’s investigation finds some child welfare policies at odds with minors’ rights to abortion and birth control.
Also: Foster Care’s Missing Policies For Sexual and Reproductive Health: https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/high-stakes-silent-systems-part-1/240790

Foster Care’s Conflicting Policies For Sexual and Reproductive Health