DEBATE

Teen-sex crackdown would reduce number seeking help, experts say

Efforts to tighten controls on teenage sex in Kansas could overwhelm an already strained social services network. That's what a doctor of adolescent medicine and a reproductive health researcher told a federal judge Monday during the opening day of a lawsuit over whether the state is invading the medical privacy of its youth.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten in Wichita is trying to decide if a legal opinion by Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline goes too far in its attempt to sift out sex crimes against children. The outcome could have ramifications across the United States, and the trial is attracting the attention of legal groups, women's rights organizations and health care providers. A group of doctors, nurses and social workers is challenging Kline's opinion that they should report all sexual activity involving boys and girls under 16 - the legal age of consent in Kansas.

Assistant attorney general Steve Alexander said in his opening address that such measures are necessary for Kansas to enforce its laws against sexual abuse. In Kansas, any sexual activity involving youth under the age of 16 is a crime. Alexander said all cases need to be investigated by the state. "You're talking about a flood of reports," testified Robert Blum, a doctor of adolescent medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As many as 10,000 more reports could fall each year on the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. That's about how many Kansas teens under the age of 16 lose their virginity each year, according to Stanley Henshaw, who studies statistical trends in reproductive health. "They wouldn't be able to go through all those reports," Blum said, adding that cases of real abuse would fall through newly created cracks in the system. Blum said the law would also handcuff doctors, who are on the front lines of fighting child abuse. "Confidentiality is the cornerstone of our tool kits," said Blum, former U.S. representative to the World Health Organization.

Blum said he could envision Kansas teens having to sign forms, much like those used in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, informing them that information on sexual activity will be reported to the state. "I cannot imagine it doing anything but muzzling them," Blum said.

Requiring doctors to report all sexual activity could also affect how much teens talk to their parents. More than three out of four teens wait until after their 16th birthday to engage in intercourse. But about half of those who do become sexually active at an earlier age tell their parents. Henshaw said the youth seek advice about birth control, and their parents accompany them to the doctor. "It could frighten the teens, especially if they thought it was being seen as a crime," Henshaw said. "They would be more hesitant to tell their parents."

Other teens, who don't want their parents to find out, might also be less likely to seek medical help for birth control, prenatal care of pregnancies and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Henshaw cited a Connecticut study showing that teens were twice as likely to seek testing for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, after a law dropped the requirement to notify parents. Blum and Henshaw said that, under such a system, disease and teen pregnancies would rise. "I don't know how you could say there wouldn't be more pregnancies," Henshaw said. "If there are more pregnancies, there would be more abortions and more births."

Testimony continues Tuesday.

Ron Sylvester
30 January 2006

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/13750413.htm

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