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Top court orders more hearings on abortion law

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 12:17 CST

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In its first abortion ruling in more than five years, the U.S. Supreme Court said on Wednesday that a lower court should not have struck down a state law requiring parental notice before a minor's abortion because only part of it raised constitutional problems.

"We do not revisit our abortion precedents today," retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the unanimous high court in sending the case back for more hearings.

She said that invalidating the entire New Hampshire law, as a U.S. appeals court had done, was not always necessary or justified when only one part of the law failed to provide for access to an abortion in some medical emergencies.

O'Connor said lower courts in such cases, when considering whether enforcement of just the medical emergency aspect might be unconstitutional, may be able to solve that narrow legal problem without invalidating the entire law.

A federal judge and a U.S. appeals court declared the entire New Hampshire law unconstitutional because it lacked provisions for an exception involving a medical emergency. The law, adopted in 2003, has never been enforced.

Abortion has been one of the nine-member court's most contentious and divisive issues. O'Connor, a moderate conservative who has voted to uphold abortion rights, has said she will leave the court when her successor is confirmed by the Senate, which could happen later this month.

Senate Democrats fear that Judge Samuel Alito, nominated by President George W. Bush to replace O'Connor, and new Chief Justice John Roberts, another Bush appointee, will vote to allow new restrictions on abortion.

'BLUNT REMEDY'

The New Hampshire law requires that a parent be notified 48 hours before a daughter under age 18 has an abortion. It includes an alternative procedure to seek a judge's approval to end the pregnancy. It provides an exception when the minor's life is in danger, but not for non-life-threatening medical emergencies.

"Only a few applications of New Hampshire's parental notification statute would present a constitutional problem," O'Connor said in the 10-page opinion.

O'Connor said the lower courts in the New Hampshire case adopted the most blunt remedy possibly. She said an injunction could be entered barring enforcement of the law's unconstitutional applications.

O'Connor said New Hampshire's has conceded that under Supreme Court precedent it would be unconstitutional to apply the law in a manner that subjects minors to significant health risks.

Although the court disposed of the New Hampshire law on narrow grounds, the justices may soon address another abortion controversy.

The Bush administration has pending before the high court an appeal urging the justices to uphold a federal law that bans certain abortion procedures.

At issue is a U.S. appeals court ruling that declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 unconstitutional because it lacks an exception to protect the health of a pregnant woman.

Source: REUTERS

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