Abstract
In H.L. v. Matheson, the United States Supreme Court upheld a Utah statute that requires parental notification before an unmarried, unemancipated minor can obtain an abortion. The Court strictly limited its holding to the facts of the case, upholding the statute as applied to the particular class of unemancipated minors living with and dependent on their parents, and making no claim or showing of advanced maturity or unusual parental relations. Matheson's limited holding has little precedential force, but sweeping dicta in the Court's opinion suggest that in future cases, a presumption against maturity and unusual parental relations will require plaintiffs to prove those characteristics. When a statute impinges on protected individual liberties, the state has traditionally borne the burden of showing that the statute is rationally related to some state interest. The presumptions raised in Matheson, however, threaten the constitutional guarantee of decisional privacy by placing the burden on individual plaintiffs to show that the statute has no rational relationship as applied to them.
Recommended Citation
Scofield, David W.
(1982)
"H.L. v. Matheson-A Minor Decision About
Parental Notice,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1982:
No.
4, Article 6.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1982/iss4/6