A young teen gives birth. Idaho’s parental consent law snags her care.
The state’s new law requires parental permission for nearly all health care a minor receives. A 13-year-old’s pregnancy gets caught up in the consequences.

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On a warm Idaho afternoon, Aleah looks on as guests at her baby shower search for toy pacifiers in a scavenger hunt. (Rachel Woolf for The Washington Post)

By Karin Brulliard
October 21, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

McCALL, Idaho — The patient, 36 weeks pregnant, was having mild but frequent contractions. She had come to the emergency room in this small lakeside town because she was new to the area and had no doctor. In most cases, physician Caitlin Gustafson would have begun a pelvic exam to determine whether labor had started. This time, she called the hospital’s lawyers.

Mom-to-be Aleah was only 13 years old. And under a new Idaho law requiring parental consent for nearly all minors’ health care, Gustafson could be sued for treating her because the girl had been brought in by her great-aunt.

What followed were more than two frantic hours of trying to contact Aleah’s mother, who was living in a car, and her grandmother, who was the teen’s legal guardian. The grandmother finally gave verbal consent for the exam — from the Boise-area jail where she was incarcerated on drug charges. ... “I was freaking out,” said Anna Karren, the relative who had taken Aleah into her home just days before. What if the hospital couldn’t reach the right person? “They want guardianship papers, and I don’t have them.”

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Aleah, who is being identified by only her first name because of her age, had been moved around her whole life. That included spells in foster care and a halfway house, separated from her six siblings. She only briefly lived with her mother several years ago. Her father had long been absent. ... As for her baby’s teen dad, he now was in juvenile detention. The pair hadn’t thought about contraception, Aleah conceded, and she never considered an abortion, which would have required a trip to another state anyway.

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Aleah talks with the doctor during her daughter's two-week checkup, while Anna Karren cuddles Oaklie in the corner. (Rachel Woolf for The Washington Post)

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Aleah shares a quiet moment in her new home with Oaklie. (Rachel Woolf for The Washington Post)

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By Karin Brulliard
Karin Brulliard is a Colorado-based national reporter covering the American West. Previously, she was an international news editor; a foreign correspondent in South Africa, Pakistan and Israel; and a local reporter. Brulliard joined The Post in 2003. follow on X @karinbrulliard