Supreme Court affirms parents’ right to protect daughters from abortion health risks

Washington D.C., Jan 18, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The Supreme Court’s key decision yesterday in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England overruled a lower court's attempt to nullify New Hampshire's parental notification law and introduced the possibility of limiting abortions.

The "ruling is a great victory for both the fair judicial review of pro-life laws across the nation, and for New Hampshire parents who wish to protect their daughters from the significant health risks related to abortion,” said Bioethics Defense Fund president and general counsel Nikolas T. Nikas.

Nikas participated in the legal team that prepared New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte for Supreme Court oral argument.

Niks said the decision rejects the old 'abortion-distortion' double standard, which allowed abortion proponents, such as Planned Parenthood, “to challenge and strike down the entire abortion regulation if they could come up with even one possible scenario where the law could be applied in an unconstitutional manner.”

The ruling states that “if there are both constitutional and unconstitutional applications of the law, the lower court should sever the unconstitutional application and uphold the remainder of the law if it is consistent with the legislative intent," Nikas explained.

The 17,000-member Christian Medical Association had filed an amicus brief, which showed how “the lower courts erroneously relied on the testimony of a single physician, who came up with several pregnancy conditions which in his opinion merited an abortion,” said CMA executive director Dr. David Stevens.

“A careful medical analysis, however, showed that in each hypothetical case that the doctor suggested, an abortion would not only not be indicated; in many cases would actually be contraindicated," he stated

"Polls suggest that the American people have resoundingly embraced this basic principle [that parents have a right to guide their own child's healthcare] as it relates to notification on abortion,” said Stevens, endorsing the court’s decision. “Any good doctor realizes that the input of parents remains one of his or her most important assets in understanding children patients and providing appropriate care.”

Dorinda Bordlee, Esq., senior counsel for Bioethics Defense Fund said this case "allows New Hampshire parents to provide guidance to their healthy minors considering abortion.”