The New Hampshire Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on H.B. 184, a bill that would repeal the parental notification law regarding abortion Tuesday afternoon. Under the current law, a female under the age of 18 must notify her parent or guardian 48 hours prior to her abortion procedure.
The state House of Representatives passed the bill on March 7 by a vote of 226 to 130. The Senate plans to vote on the bill after considerations by the judiciary committee.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England had previously challenged the law in a Supreme Court case. The Supreme Court ruled that the law should contain an exception for the general health of young women. The current law only provides an exception to prevent death. The court remanded the law to N.H. state court for remedy.
Dawn Touzin of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said that her organization wants the legislature, and not the court system, to make all of the decisions on this issue.
"H.B. 184 is about getting that case out of the courts and letting the legislature take it up," Touzin said. "This bill would repeal the law that the Supreme Court said is not legal as is."
Challenged by Planned Parenthood immediately after its implementation in 2003, the law has never been actively applied in New Hampshire.
Judiciary committee member Sen. Robert Letourneau, R-Derry, said that the law in question is requires only parental notification, not consent as is the case in other states.
Letourneau said he believes parents have a right to be notified and that a law to that effect will have positive results.
"Just by having the law on the books, you'll see fewer abortions and fewer teenage pregnancies," Letourneau said.
Representative D.J. Bettencourt, R-Rockingham, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that Democrats are trying to eliminate the parental notification law instead of amending it to have the health exception that the Supreme Court requested.
"I don't see any sort of effort to fix the original bill, which is a real shame," Bettencourt said.
The bill will most likely pass in the Senate, according to Bettencourt, who believes that this issue falls along party lines.
In the house vote, 31 Republicans voted for the bill while 14 Democrats voted against it.
Representative Philip Preston, D-Grafton, said that many teenagers cannot tell their parents about pregnancy without being subject to abuse.
"Mental and physical violence does exist is some cases and I think that we need to put a high priority to protect the teenagers," Preston said. He suspects that the Senate will pass the bill "quite easily."
Though the current law grants minors the option to speak to a judge to grant them an exception, Preston said that society should not force minors go before a judge to receive an exception.
Bettencourt responded by saying that the courts treat children more sensitively than adults. Minors who seek an exception can go into a judge's chambers, he said, assisted by someone from Planned Parenthood or someone they can trust. Exception could also be granted over the phone, according to Bettencourt.
As a response to the repeal of the parental notification law, Republicans plan to take action in the next legislative term, Bettencourt said.
"You can expect to see a bill filed next term that brings back the bill in its entirety with the amendment of the health exception that was upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court," he said.
