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Anti-Abortion Bills Advance In Montana Legislators Endorse Parental Notification For Teens, 24-Hour Waiting Period For Adults

Associated Press

Anti-abortion forces won a pair of victories in the Legislature Tuesday as bills adding restrictions on abortion advanced in each house.

The Senate endorsed a proposal requiring a parent or guardian be notified before an underage girl can get an abortion. The House endorsed a measure mandating a woman wait 24 hours to get an abortion so she has time to understand the procedure and its possible effects.

Republicans generally supported the bills and Democrats accounted for the opposition.

Each bill faces a final vote later this week before being returned to the other house for review of changes made Tuesday.

Abortion rights leaders expect both measures will pass the Republican-controlled Legislature and be signed into law by GOP Gov. Marc Racicot.

Opponents of both bills, all Democrats, made numerous attempts Tuesday to soften the impact of the restrictions. Most failed, but the debates together lasted more than five hours.

House approval of the waiting period came on a 56-42 vote. Senate Bill 292 requires that doctors give women state-supplied information about the potential psychological or medical impacts from abortion, pregnancy and adoption.

Backers argued it is intended to help women by guaranteeing they will be fully informed about impacts of abortion and the alternatives before going ahead with the surgery. But foes called it an insult to women.

The parental notification bill, House Bill 482, was approved by the Senate 30-19 after the Republican majority turned back a host of additions sought by Democrats.

Among the rejected changes was one that would have required a doctor to notify the parents of boys responsible for a pregnancy that prompts a girl to seek an abortion.

Rep. Mike Foster, R-Townsend, opposed the idea.

“This just doesn’t fit; this bill is about females,” he said, drawing laughter from women senators.

“This is a bill about abortion; it is not about females,” shot back Sen. Mignon Waterman, D-Helena.

GOP senators also rebuffed amendments that would have made it easier for a girl to ask a judge to exempt her from notice requirement and would have prevented parents from coercing their daughter to carry a pregnancy to term.

Foster said HB482 will take pressure off pregnant teenagers by ensuring their parents are involved in the abortion decision.

“If a girl doesn’t have the inner strength to tell her parents what they ought to know, then somebody else is going to do it for them,” he said.

Sen. Mike Halligan, D-Missoula, called the bill another Republican “assault on individual freedoms” and said the government has no business telling families how they should communicate.