New Hampshire parental notification law faces repeal

Some doctors say the abortion statute infringes on their medical judgment. Others say the law works.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. April 16, 2007.

New Hampshire could become the first state to repeal a law requiring physicians to notify parents before performing an abortion on a minor. Doctors are debating whether a fresh start will result in a better measure.

The House in March passed a bill that would undo the 2003 state law requiring doctors to inform at least one parent 48 hours before the procedure unless the abortion is necessary to save the patient's life. A provision also lets doctors or young women ask a judge to bypass the requirement.

The U.S. Supreme Court in January 2006 unanimously found the law flawed because it lacked a broader health exception to protect young women from emergencies that are not immediately life threatening but pose serious risks. But justices declined to strike down the entire measure as unconstitutional and instead sent it back to federal district court to determine if it could be redrafted.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Joseph A. DiClerico Jr. in a February order acknowledged lawmakers' attempt at a repeal and postponed further consideration of the law while the Legislature debates its fate. If the repeal is enacted, the case will be over.

Abortion-rights groups and some physicians say the law was defective from the beginning and that revoking it is the only way to start clean with a measure that will protect minors' safety and doctors' medical judgment.

"Our focus has been on getting rid of what has been an unconstitutional law," said Dawn Touzin, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which brought the lawsuit in 2003 challenging the law. The measure is aimed at restricting minors' access to abortion, she said.