A Utah republican lawmaker is urging his colleagues to support legislation that would allow low-income female minors to get a contraception prescription without parental consent.
Rep. Ray Ward is a family practice physician in Bountiful. He said if one or both of a young girls parents are delinquent, and not willing to come with her to a doctor’s appointment or clinic, the doctor could decide if not getting the contraception is detrimental to the low-income girl’s health.
It would be up to the doctor to decide if she could get the prescription.
HB254would make several changes in Utah law to allow a low-income female minor to get a contraception prescription, paid for by a federal grant.
Ward said if Utah law is changed under his bill, clinics which do not refer patients to abortion providers could use $2.5 million to provide birth control drugs to young women.
