An administrative office reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services that 3 out 4 abortion cases among minors were approved by the judges even without parental consent.

In a report submitted by the Administrative Office of the Courts to the health department, it was revealed that 95 out of 128 abortion petitions were approved by the Superior Court judges.

The Arizona Capitol Times recently reported a 7.4 decline on the abortion rate for 2012 compared to 2011. The current data presented that 463 out of 13,340 recorded abortions involved minors or those below 18 years old. Some minors, 42 to be exact, were able to proceed with the procedure without securing approval from their parents.

The health department was glad that the overall abortion rate has dropped but got alarmed with the increasing rate of minor abortions that were able to bypass their parents. The number had increased from 32 in 2011 to 42 for 2012.

It seemed that these minors could easily convince the court to let them proceed with the procedure without telling their parents. However, a professor from a university commented that this is not something new.

"In every state I have studied, or other people have studied, the pattern is the same, and the pattern is that a minor who makes her way to a court and gets before a judge to petition for a bypass is very likely to get her petition granted," said Helena Silverstein, professor at Lafayette College, to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Silverstein also cited some of the reasons why minors wouldn't want to seek parental consent for abortion procedures-- they wouldn't want them to know that they were sexually active, to avoid resistance, and to prevent being kicked out of the house.

The court would usually approve a minor's abortion petition without parental consent if it found the girl "mature and capable of giving informed consent" and it would protect her best interests.

Back in 2003, a minor filed a petition to the Arizona Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court's decision related to the parental consent law. The girl's reason was "could not afford to raise a child, and she did not want to be responsible for the child having a bad life." Her petition was approved by the court of appeals.