Iowa House Approves Abortion Bill on Reporting Requirements 
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by Maria Vitale Gallagher
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
March 23, 2005
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — The Iowa House has unanimously approved a bill that would require physicians to report statistics on abortions performed on minors.
Abortion practitioners in Iowa would have to indicate whether they provided parental notification before performing an abortion on a minor, or whether they performed an abortion on a minor who had obtained a waiver of notification from juvenile court.
Rep. Steven Lukan (R-New Vienna) says the current parental notification law is being circumvented, with people going to court in order to obtain judicial bypass.
Lukan told the Sioux City Journal, “We are trying to get information to base policy decisions on. Right now we have a lot of anecdotal evidence that says our current notification law does not work."
Lukan noted that, if statistics show that judges are waiving the notification requirement in a large percentage of cases, he would probably pursue legislation requiring a parent’s consent prior to an abortion.
"The idea of the notification law is to involve parents in this decision," Lukan told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Rep. Bruce Hunter (D-Des Moines) says the bill manages to gather sound statistical evidence while protecting both health care workers and the judiciary.
The bill was enacted 98-0.
On its website, Iowa Right to Life states, “According to research and the number of girls preyed upon by older men, we are hard pressed to believe that any child is ‘mature’ enough to go through an invasive surgery without their parents’ knowledge."
Related web sites:
Iowa Right to Life – https://www.irlc.org
