Parental consent abortion bill unlikely
BOISE – Idaho lawmakers likely will not propose legislation to require minors to get their parents’ permission to have an abortion, legislative leaders said Thursday during a forum organized by the Associated Press.
Lawmakers are already looking at a full plate of issues for the session that starts Monday, including changes to the grocery tax, a new energy plan for the state and public transit improvements. Trying to negotiate a parental consent bill – an issue that has proved legally thorny in the past – doesn’t seem possible, especially if no proposals have been written yet, said House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale.
“Before a new parental consent bill comes forward, I think that we do need to have a consensus on the language,” Denney said. “In trying to keep the session short, it’s not good to write legislation in committee.”
Legislative leaders said they will be focused on getting their work done quickly this session to clear out of the Statehouse in time for a renovation project scheduled to start in April.
The Legislature has made several attempts – most recently last March – to pass legislation requiring girls to get their parents’ permission before having an abortion. Each time the laws have been struck down by judges as unconstitutional – but not before the state spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending them in court against challenges from Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The state spent more than $350,000 on the failed defense of a 2000 parental consent abortion law against a Planned Parenthood suit. A judge ruled last April that the state must also pay Planned Parenthood’s more than $380,500 legal bill.
If the Legislature wants to address the parental consent issue again, lawmakers need to craft a bill they can be sure will not spawn more expensive court battles, said Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum.
“Every time, we spend another couple hundred thousand dollars in defense of an unconstitutional law,” Stennett said. “We’re close to a million bucks, and that’s from trying to stand up and protect and prove the constitutionality of something that always pushes the edge.”
The state’s previous laws have been struck down because they require a report to law enforcement if a minor has engaged in criminal activity. In Idaho, a 1921 law makes it illegal for minors to have sex.
In a July 2005 ruling, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the loss of anonymity that a girl suffers when her sexual activity must be reported would have a “chilling effect” on her decision to have an abortion.
One legislative leader at the preview session, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said he thinks lawmakers should come back to parental abortion consent this session, and that it’s still possible to craft a legally viable bill over the course of the session.
“I actually hope we do see a meaningful, positive, constitutionally sound parental consent bill,” Davis said. “If they can meet that standard, I would be pleased to vote to print it and pleased to vote to pass it, and I hope that’s what we do this year.”