Under Colorado law, a school may not dispense even a tablet of acetaminophen to a child with a fever at the nurse’s office without the written permission of a parent or guardian. That’s not always convenient, but it’s a necessary acknowledgment of the pivotal role parents are supposed to play in their children’s health and welfare.

It applies to medical intervention for children in Colorado – except abortion.

Colorado’s parental-notification law, passed by the Legislature in 2003, requires only that a parent or guardian be notified, not asked, if a minor seeks an abortion. And there are exceptions to the law for minors who are legally emancipated, or who get a court to let them sidestep the notification requirement.

In other words, Colorado’s parental-notice requirement for abortions performed on pregnant girls under 18 is a lot less onerous than the restrictions on just about any other type of medical treatment for minors.

So, you have to wonder what a couple of University of Colorado researchers were trying to prove last week in releasing “findings” that 1 in 10 minors seeking an abortion in Texas and Florida – which are among 22 states requiring parental notice – try to avoid notifying their parents by going to court. And the researchers also found that in 13% of those cases, the judge turned down the request for such a “judicial bypass.”

Thirteen percent of 10% is a minuscule 1.3%. Yet, the study’s authors seem troubled by it.

“States that support abortion rights but continue to mandate parental involvement have a responsibility to consider the true consequences of those mandates,” co-author Amanda Stevenson, assistant professor of sociology at CU Boulder, said in a news release Friday.

What consequences is Stevenson referring to? That, in a handful of cases, pregnant teens tried to keep their parents from finding out? The authors note that Florida’s law requires parental consent.

Evidently, in the vast majority of cases Florida parents did give their consent. And under Colorado’s law, parents don’t even have that much say. They cannot stop an abortion; a court, at most, can require notification before an abortion can proceed.

Then, what the CU research really tells us is that parental-notice laws on the books in nearly half the states are functioning pretty much as intended. And it’s a safe bet that’s what really bothers the study’s authors.

They don’t appear to realize parental-notice policies are not a threat to abortion rights. Abortion isn’t under attack in Colorado.

Just last year, the Legislature’s Democratic majority passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, arguably the most permissive state law on abortion in the country after last spring’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed the act amid fanfare. Abortion will remain unfettered for adults in Colorado for the foreseeable future.

Parental-notice laws such as Colorado’s are simply about ensuring that parents or guardians are at least apprised and, one hopes, engaged if their child undergoes a procedure that for many people has profound and life-changing implications.

If parents have to sign off on an aspirin, shouldn’t they at least be informed of an invasive medical procedure performed on their 15-, 14- or maybe 13-year-old child?

Colorado’s parental-notice law is hardly a burden. But it does keep parents in the loop. That’s a good thing.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board