Alaska Supreme Court Rules That Teens Don't Need to Notify Their Parents Before Getting an Abortion

The Alaska Supreme Court has deemed a new state law, which requires teens to notify their parents before getting an abortion, unconstitutional.

According to the Associated Press ,The majority opinion written by Justice Daniel Winfree states that the court is not concerned with whether abortion is right or wrong or whether abortions should be available to minors without restriction. He said the focus in this case is on whether the law complies with the constitution’s equal protection provisions. It does not, he said.

Justice Dana Fabe, who was chief justice when the case was heard, in a concurring opinion said that while she disagreed with the conclusion that the law violates equal protection, she believes it violates fundamental privacy rights. “I believe that the Alaska Constitution permits a parental notification law, but not one that contains provisions that are among the most restrictive of any state’s notification laws,” her concurrence states.

Abortion activists have been speaking out against the law—which requires minors to wait 48 hours to get an abortion after telling their parents (unless they get parental permission to have the procedure sooner)—and the way it violates teens’ privacy rights since it was voted on in 2010.

The law, as CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands Christine Charbonneau points out, can have dangerous ripple effects because some teens “live in dangerous homes and cannot go to their parents.”

Source JZB blog