Parental Consent Laws Reduce STDs

Via Bobvis, an article in the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization by Klick and Stratman: "Abortion Access and Risky Sex Among Teens: Parental Involvement Laws and Sexually Transmitted Diseases". The conclusion is that, whatever affect they have on abortion rates, parental notification/consent laws reduce "risky sexual activity" among teens as measured by the STD rate.

I particularly appreciated Bobvis' observation:

You might object that states with such laws are more likely to be conservative. However, (1) if that makes a difference, then obviously teenager behavior is manipulable by something, either these laws or by societal conservatism. Also, (2) they controlled for such societal effects using adult gonorrhea rates. It is unlikely that conservatism in a states affects teens, but not the broader society.