The New Hampshire State Senate passed a bill on Thursday repealing a law requiring abortionists to give parents advance notice before aborting the babies of their teenage daughters.
The bill passed the Senate with a 15-9 vote, and was passed by the State House in March with a 217-141 vote. Governor John Lynch has indicated he plans to sign the legislation.
The now doomed parental notification law placed strict requirements on abortionists when it was passed in 2003, proscribing them from performing abortions on "unemancipated minors" until 48 hours after their parents/guardians had received written notice.
The law, however, never took effect. Federal district court judge Joseph A. DiClerico Jr. in Concord struck it down in favor of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and other groups, who claimed the bill unconstitutionally omitted an exemption for when a minor's health was in danger. Pro-life advocates found such a medical exception unnecessary on the grounds that abortion is never an emergency medical procedure and a health exception provides an umbrella of excuses to circumvent the law.
The US Supreme Court supported Judge DiClerico last year, giving instructions to see if the law could be refashioned to include a medical exception or to throw it out altogether if he saw fit.
Repealing the parental notification law makes its fate in the court system moot. Foes of the parental notification law are attempting to frame the victory in terms of a victory of the democratic process, pointing out that the issue has been decided by the legislature, as it should be, and not by a judge, but apparently ignoring that the issue was originally decided by the legislature in 2003 when the law was passed.
"Our opponents said, ‘If you vote for repeal, you're voting against parental notification,'" Dawn Touzin, vice president for public policy and governmental affairs at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England told the New York Times. "We said, ‘No, you're not.' The issue is, do you want to leave it in the hands of the judge or shouldn't it be something that's decided by the legislature?"
"You can't get your daughter or son's ears pierced under the age of 17 without parental consent; you can't get a tattoo without parental consent," said State Senator Robert J. Letourneau according to the Times. "To me it's unconscionable that you can't give an aspirin to a child in school without parental consent, but they can have major surgery without parental notification!"
