Abortion Bill Faces Floor Vote Parental Consent Bill Passes Easily In Committee

Carefully timed, evenly divided testimony made little difference as a House committee overwhelmingly endorsed legislation requiring parental or judicial consent for most abortions performed on minors.

State Affairs Committee members voted 19-2 on Tuesday for the Senate-passed bill that Gov. Dirk Kempthorne already has vowed to sign into law.

“This was a very difficult decision,” said Jerry Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint. She said the bill gives enough “outs” for girls who cannot talk to their parents.

“Good parents … well, what I consider good parents, would want to be involved with their child at such an emotional time,” Stoicheff said. “Ultimately, though, I still believe it is the person who is pregnant’s right to make the decision.”

Only Democrat Wendy Jaquet of Ketchum and Republican Ruby Stone of Boise opposed the measure that amounts to a fine-tuning of a bill that then-Gov. Phil Batt vetoed two years ago.

Final legislative approval in the House appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

Almost 2 hours of testimony Tuesday mirrored what the committee’s Senate counterpart heard almost two weeks ago before that panel narrowly endorsed the bill, 5-4. The full Senate then voted 23-12 for the proposal largely drafted by Republican Rep. Bill Sali of Meridian and Kempthorne’s attorney, Michael Bogert.

Backing the bill Tuesday were representatives of such groups as the Idaho Christian Coalition, Idaho Family Forum and the Catholic Church, joined by physicians and a new teenage mother who gave her baby up for adoption after choosing against abortion.

They argued that when the state requires parental consent even to dispense aspirin to schoolchildren, it must support families by insisting that permission is required for something so serious and potentially traumatic as abortion.

“This is not government mandating a conversation. This is government affirming a relationship,” Julie Lynde of the Idaho Family Forum said.

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Idaho Women’s Network were joined in their opposition by a high school student, Rabbi Daniel Fink and folk singer Rosalie Sorrels, who told how she had an illegal abortion at 16 because her mother and aunt insisted.

They said parents already are almost always involved under Idaho’s existing parental notification law. In fact, they said, the only girls facing an additional burden would be those least likely, because of their difficult personal or family circumstances, to be able or willing to go to their parents or a judge for help.

“In an ideal world parents would be involved. But you know what? This bill doesn’t create it,” Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Nicole Prehoda said. “This bill will drive some teens to desperate measures.”

But even some of those who were less than enthusiastic about the bill - patterned on a Missouri law - finally conceded that it was inevitable and might help bring some teens with unplanned pregnancies closer to their parents.

If parental consent is not required, “we’re robbing kids of some really strong support during that time,” Rep. Margaret Henbest, a Boise Democrat and mother of two teenagers, said. “Sometimes we need a nudge.”

Henbest, a nurse practitioner, called it “a heart-wrenching vote for me,” but said as a health care professional who sometimes works with abused children she could imagine only rare occasions in which it would be appropriate for parents not to be involved in such situations.

She agreed with the bill’s opponents, however, that the legislation is flawed and that more emphasis should be placed on alternatives to abortion and on preventing teen pregnancies through education.

But most committee members accepted the bill as its sponsors presented it - not so much an assault on abortion as a way of bringing families closer.

“What’s good for families is what’s good for Idaho,” GOP Rep. Jeff Alltus of Hayden said.

Sali said the experiences of Missouri and other states indicate that requiring parental consent will help reduce the incidence of both teen pregnancy and abortion. And he said many psychological problems can be avoided by requiring a parent’s permission except in the rare cases when a minor is married or in the military, there is a medical emergency or a judge has found her mature enough to decide for herself or that abortion would be in her best interest.

“I don’t believe it’s the role of government to grant that girl permission before the parent gets involved,” Sali said. “We know that some young ladies will still choose abortion.”

The bill rejects more strident attempts to expand the definition of abortion to include prescription medicines and other substances, which has raised the specter of requiring parental consent for birth control.

It also broadens court access beyond a teen’s county of residence to the entire multicounty judicial district. Critics argued that allowing girls to go only to judges in their home county was too restrictive in sparse rural areas where everyone knows everyone else.

And Kempthorne agreed to accept the bill only after medical emergencies were expanded to include cases where the girl’s life or even her health is jeopardized.

This sidebar appeared with the story: PARENTAL CONSENT How they voted

North Idaho votes on the parental consent bill that was approved by the House State Affairs Committee Tuesday. The bill now goes to the House floor.

Voting in favor: Reps. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden; June Judd, D-St. Maries; John Campbell, R-Sandpoint; and Jerry Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint.