A unanimous Supreme Court managed Jan. 18 to uphold a New Hampshire law requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortions without breaking new ground on abortion rights.
In deciding Ayotte vs. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the justices said lower federal courts had erred by invalidating the entire law when only a portion of it raised constitutional concerns.
The decision sends the case back to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for further consideration.
“We do not revisit our abortion precedents today, but rather address a question of remedy: If enforcing a statute that regulates access to abortion would be unconstitutional in medical emergencies, what is the appropriate judicial response?” said Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who wrote the brief, 10-page opinion for the court.
“We hold that invalidating the statute entirely is not always necessary or justified, for lower courts may be able to render narrower declaratory and injunctive relief,” she added.
The case concerned a 2003 New Hampshire law that required minors seeking abortions to notify their parents before doctors could carry out the procedure, except in emergencies.
In the latest case, an abortion-rights group challenged the New Hampshire law because it does not contain an explicit exception for the health of the minor.
Because the statue’s lack of a health exception would hinder the abortion rights of a “very small” number of minors, O’Connor wrote, the lower courts had picked too “blunt” a remedy to the problem by overturning the entire law. (ABP)
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