State Minor Consent Laws for HIV/STI Services

This longitudinal dataset captures important features of state laws that regulate (1) minors’ legal capacity to consent to health care, independently, without the consent of their parents/guardians; (2) minors’ legal capacity to consent to several specific categories of care, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention/treatment such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention/treatment; (3) minors’ legal right to keep information about their receipt of sexual health-related services confidential from their parents/guardians, including when they use a parent or guardian’s insurance to pay for the services they receive; and (4) ages of majority for women and men. The dataset covers laws in effect from inception, as early as January 1, 1849, through December 31, 2021, in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01MH119892 (PI: Kimberly Nelson). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors.