Arizona House Passes Bills to Toughen Parental Consent Law on Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 8, 2006
Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) — The Arizona state House passed two bills on Tuesday that would toughen the state’s parental consent requirements mandating that an abortion practitioner obtain a parent’s permission before performing an abortion on a minor teenager.
One measure, HB 2666, requires the consent form to be notarized to make sure that parents have actually signed off on the abortion and that the forms are not falsified.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat, said she opposed that bill because she worried public notaries would gossip about teens who have abortions.
A second bill aims to reduce the number of abortions that are granted under the judicial bypass provision, which is meant to only allow abortions in cases when teens face possible abuse at home.
The legislation, HB 2776, spells out the kind of considerations judges should seriously take into account when ruling on such abortion, like the girl’s age and experiences outside the home.
The House approved each measure on a 39-18 vote, and now both bills head to the state Senate for consideration. The House Judiciary Committee approved that bills on a 6-2 vote.
According to the Associated Press, Arizona’s parental consent law was enacted in 2000 and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it as constitutional in 2002.
Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, has vetoed several pro-life bills and is expected to oppose the parental consent measures as well. Although the Senate hasn’t voted, the House approved the measures by a veto-proof majority.
She vetoed a bill in 2004 that would have allowed women to receive information about abortion’s risks and alternatives that abortion businesses sometimes withhold from women considering abortions.
Napolitano has also vetoed a measure that would have protected pro-life pharmacists from being forced to dispense drugs that could cause abortions.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your elected officials and encourage them to support these proposals. Find contact info at https://www.azleg.gov.
Related web sites:
Arizona Right to Life – https://www.azrtl.org
