If a teenager miscarries does the parents need to notified?

Question

I'm writing a story and i just wanted to be accurate. My character is 16, she is about 7 weeks pregnant. She goes to hospital as she was bleeding, at the hospital the doctors confirm that she has miscarried. Her 18 year old sister is there to hold her hand but do her parents need to be notified

Answer 1

Yes, her parents need to be notified, because a miscarriage is a medical emergency which requires immediate treatment- or there is a risk that the mother can BLEED TO DEATH. Most doctors will not provide the kind of treatment this condition requires WITHOUT obtaining parental consent, if the patient is a minor. Suppose your character needs SURGERY to stop the bleeding? The usual method of treating a miscarriage is to do an operation called a D&C, which is a scraping of the uterus which removes any remaining tissue and what are called " products of conception" in medicine. NO DOCTOR will EVER perform such a procedure on a minor child without his or her parents' consent- it's against the law, and the doctor would be risking both a lawsuit and potentially, being charged with negligent homicide or malpractice if anything were to go wrong. If you want to make your story realistic and believeable, then you need to frame the storyline in such a way as to include this kind of information.Another point you need to remember is that the age of consent for medical treatment, and the age of consent for sexual activity, are NOT ONE AND THE SAME. The age of consent for medical treatment is 18 in EVERY STATE, whereas the age of consent for sex tends to vary widely from state to state. Some states have 16 as their minimum age, others 17, and in still others, it's 18. Here where I live, in central Delaware, the age of consent for sex is 17.



The character in your story could obtain contraceptives and pregnancy testing in most states, but there is no way she could legally obtain treatment for a miscarriage at her age- it's illegal. Sorry.

Answer 2

Well if she went to a clinic then no. But because it is at the hospital the only reason they would be notified 1. is for insurance purposes and 2. because they need your parents to sign you out and sign for treatment if under 18. But in the case of her sister being there she might be able to sign those discharge papers. So yes they would find out and they would be notified some way or another either from the hospital because of the hospital bill or to get your insurance information, which would show up in the mail for the parents.

Answer 3

In Arizona, as long as she is receiving care for a pregnancy, her parents do not need to be notified. She is considered emancipated for the purposes of prenatal care. However, if she were to need care for a a medical condition OTHER than pregnancy, parents would have to be notified. IF she is receiving care under her parent's insurance, they may find out when the insurance bills them, but the hospital personnel would not be the ones to inform them. Most insurances will not cover care for a pregnant dependent though, so you probably wouldn't have to worry about it...

Answer 4

Yes. It is a serious medical issue that needs treatment by a doctor to make sure the mom doesn't hemhorrage or get a nasty infection. It's not something to take lightly.

Answer 5

in australia anyone over the age of 18 can sign the consent forms so the sister could do it and as people under 18 are covered by medicare they wouldnt have to pay so the parents wouldnt find out

Answer 6

they should because miscarriages can cause problems later down the line. and who's gonna pay for the hospital bill?

Answer 7

yes