OKgrannie

This bill was unconstitutional; how many states have unconstitutional parental notification laws on their books?

N.H. votes to repeal parental notice law - Yahoo! News

CONCORD, N.H. - The state Senate voted Thursday to repeal a law requiring parental notification for teenagers to get abortions.

The 2003 law, which never was enforced because of legal challenges, required abortion providers to notify at least one parent 48 hours or more before performing an abortion on a minor.

The Senate's 15-9 vote comes after the House passed the measure 226-130. Democrat Gov. John Lynch said he will sign it. New Hampshire is among more than 40 states with some type of parental notice laws, though some are not enforced.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Foster, a Democrat, said the issue before lawmakers was about an unconstitutional law, not abortion or parental rights. "This is about a bill that, when adopted, was known by the Legislature to be unconstitutional," he said.

The law was challenged by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and a federal judge declared it unconstitutional in late 2003 because it lacks a provision to forgo notification in emergencies where the health of the mother is at stake."

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talloulou

Parents are notified of almost everything else that minor children do. I don't see why an elective abortion should be any different. As long as they're living under my roof and I'm responsible for feeding and caring for them I should be informed if they are having surgery.

What I find completely hypocritical is the idea that boys over the age of 18 can go to freaking jail for sleeping with a girl under the age of consent and yet these same girls who are too young to consent to sex in many states are old enough to consent to an abortion in the very same state without parental notification. That's totally freaking ridiculous. You can't have it both ways. Either they're children or they're not.

In New Hampshire you can be jailed for 7 years if you're an adult having sex with a girl under 16. But this same girl, who is apparently too young to consent to sex, is perfectly capable of consenting to abortion?

This type of $hit is destroying our country.

RightOfCenter

I don't know much about the mechanics of abortions, but is it not a dangerous and potentially dangerous procedure? Doctors should have to get the OK from parents when performing an abortion on a minor.

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1069

It's approximately 8 times safer than gestation and childbirth (late term abortion is approx. 4 times safer).
What right do parents have to force their children to endure pregnancy, when it carries such grave potential risks and abortion is statistically so much safer?*




* actually, in the US, both are fairly safe; but I assume you get my point.

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RightOfCenter

Eight times safer huh? I did not know that, but even if its safer than pregnancy it is still a medical procedure that carries its own inherent risks performed by someone else. I would think the doctor would need to get a waiver signed by the child's parents for liability reasons.

Felicity

They can't get tattoos without parental consent! You are right on here talloulou!

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americanwoman

I think the parents should know about it. Parents or Guardians are required to sign for any medical procedure and this shouldn't be any different.

OKgrannie

The bill is unconstitutional because it fails to provide for emergencies. Do you want your daughter to have to wait for 48 hours when she is dying? If a young woman has a good relationship with her parents they will know about it without a law; if a young woman doesn't have a good relationship with her parents, no law will create a relationship. MOST young women do discuss their pregnancies with their parents.

americanwoman

no, and I don't agree with that part of the law but since it is a medical procedure parents should sign something. Even if a child has a different medical emergency the hospitals do prefer to have some sort of guardian to sign for medical care. This should be no different as they should seek a parent or guardian to sign for it but if it is an absolute emergency they should go ahead with the procedure without it.

Cremaster77

For those who think that there shouldn't even be parental notification (not even consent, but notification) for abortions, I'm curious as to why you think this medical procedure should be considered separate from every other medical procedure a minor goes through.