Do remote judicial bypass hearings increase access for minors seeking abortion care?: A quasi-experimental study,...

Young people face greater barriers to accessing abortion care than adults including parental involvement laws which require those without parental/guardian notification or consent to seek judicial bypass. This study sought to assess whether the implementation of remote judicial bypass hearings was associated with an increase in access to judicial bypass.

We conducted a retrospective observational study comparing a county that implemented remote judicial bypass hearings ("treatment county") to a county in the same state that maintained in-person judicial bypass hearings ("control county"). We examined the number of judicial bypass clients who lived in or sought abortion care in the two study counties from July 2018 to April 2023. The judicial bypass clients were all represented by one of two legal organizations. We used a difference in differences approach to model monthly judicial bypass clients.

We estimated a higher number of judicial bypass requests in the county that implemented remote judicial bypass after its implementation in March 2020. The change in the number of judicial bypass requests from before to after the implementation of remote judicial bypass in the treatment county was 2.8 times the change in the control county (95% CI: 1.9-4.2, p < 0.001). In the control county, there was a 46% decrease (95% CI: 31-58%) from before to after the implementation of remote judicial bypass compared to a 53% increase in the treatment county (95% CI: 13-107%).

Offering remote judicial bypass for minors seeking abortion may expand access to judicial bypass hearings.

Remote judicial bypass hearings may be able to facilitate greater access to legal procedures for minors seeking abortion care.