By:  LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. 

According to U.S. Health Officials, 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease.  The Center for Disease Control is recommending not only annual screening for the top std infections, but also vaccinations.  (See the news release here.)  HPV (Human Papillomavirus) is one of the leading stds in the report and one for which a vaccine is available.  As if the staggering infection rates weren’t sad enough … HPV can be prevented with a simple vaccine?  Then WHY, someone tell me, do 25% of young girls have it!  One reason could be the current CDC regulations requiring a parent or guardian to be informed in writing about the benefits and potential risks of any vaccine before it is administered to a minor. 

Advocates have argued for decades that many young women will not discuss stds with a health care professional out of fear that personal medical information may not be confidential – that their parents will find out.  Largely due to this reason, both federal and state laws protect teen privacy when it comes to sexual health.  Two Federal laws – Title X (42 U.S.C. § 300 et seq.) and Medicaid - protect teens’ privacy and prohibit parental consent when teens seek reproductive services from federally funded family planning services or low-income services.  In exchange for receiving monies from the federal government, those programs require that all patients be treated confidentially, including teens.   Further, while state laws vary, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws specifically allowing minors to consent to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV, without their parents’ knowledge.  With the exception of abortion, lawmakers have generally resisted attempts to impose a parental consent or notification requirement on minors’ access to reproductive health care and other sensitive services. There are even attempts to require government funding for the HPV vaccine in some states.  Hence, all cylinders appear to be firing in the legal fight to protect teens from preventable stds! 

However, current CDC regulations require that parents be informed in writing about the risks and benefits of a vaccination before the vaccine can be administered to a minor.  Efforts appear to have been on the rise to legally mandate parental involvement in teens’ reproductive health matters.

Learn more about the safety of the HPV Vaccine, Gardasil, on the FDA website. 

Should there be confidential care for teenage std screening and treatment?  Or should parental consent be required for doctors to discuss std treatment and prevention with teens?