A Bloggin Minute: Wearing Down

A Bloggin Minute: Wearing DownSupreme Court to Consider Parents Rights
from the November 29, 2005 eNews issue. www.khouse.org
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The Supreme Court will hear a major case on the abortion issue this Wednesday. In 2003, Planned Parenthood took New Hampshire's new parental notification law to court, where it was overturned. The nation's highest court will now hear arguments to determine whether parents' rights over the medical care of their children has more importance than the rights of minor girls to get secret abortions.
New Hampshire's law is simple. It requires at least one parent to be notified, either in person or by certified mail, 48 hours before a minor daughter can legally obtain an abortion. It includes an exception to save the minor's life, as well as a judicial bypass if the girl can convince a judge that she is mature enough to make the decision on her own. A lower court struck down the law days before it was to take effect because it failed to include an exception for the "health" of the girl, and because the exception to save her life was deemed too narrow.
While health exceptions sound like good things, in reality they simply gut laws like this one. "Health" exceptions and "life" exceptions are completely different. If a girl is going to die because the growing embryo has remained inside her Fallopian tube, then an emergency procedure may be necessary before a parent can be notified. However, a child's "health" might include anything. According to the Supreme Court's definition in Doe v. Bolton (1973), "health" can include physical, psychological, emotional, familial, educational or financial "health". A health exception makes laws like these veritably useless.
The Supreme Court's decision in this case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, will be extremely significant, and will have an effect on other laws that restrict abortions. Right now, thirty-four states have laws that require a parent to either be notified or to give their consent before their minor daughter goes through an abortion. Another nine states have passed similar laws, but have had them struck down by local courts.
This case will also cause the Supreme Court to revisit other abortion-related cases, including Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), in which the Supreme Court struck down Nebraska's partial birth abortion ban (5-4) because the law was vaguely worded and did not include a health exception. The case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), another parental/spousal notification case, will also be reconsidered.
Laws that require teenagers to notify their parents or guardians before getting abortions are just good policy. Nobody would argue that minor girls should be allowed to get their tonsils removed without parental consent. Parents have the primary responsibility over the health and welfare of their children. They will be the ones dealing with any harmful physical and emotional effects an abortion might have on their scared, young daughters. They have a right to know their daughter is planning to have an abortion and to have time to discuss with her other options she might not have considered.
"Laws like this are extremely important for protecting vulnerable children against coercion, deception, and the damaging emotional and physical consequences of abortion," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center of Law and Justice. "It makes no sense to permit children to undergo a medical procedure like abortion without their parents being notified. To permit children to get abortions without parental notification is not only legally flawed, but bad public policy. This is an important opportunity for the high court to step in and protect the health and well being of our children."

Related Links:
  •   Supreme Court Should Uphold Parental Notification Law for Children Seeking Abortions - ACLJ Press Release
  •   Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England - Duke Law
  •   Abortion Case Offers U.S. Chief Justice Chance to Reshape - Bloomberg