Arizona Senate Committee Approves Parental Consent on Abortion Bills 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 21, 2006
Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) — An Arizona legislative panel on Monday approved two bills regarding parental consent that would help parents know when their minor teenage daughters are considering an abortion. Both measures now head to the full Senate for consideration.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved one bill, HB 2776, that would delineate a list of requirements teens must meet before a judge can issue a judicial waiver granting a bypass.
Pro-life groups and lawmakers say judges are too frequently approving the bypass, allowing a teen’s abortion without her parents knowing. The waiver is only supposed to be issued in cases when a teen is worried about physical abuse from her parents.
The judge is supposed to determine if the teen is "mature and capable of giving informed consent to the proposed abortion." The change requires the evidence to be "clear and convincing" and lists factors the judge should consider.
The committee also approved a bill requiring the parental consent form to be notarized.
That measure, HB 2666, is meant to make sure that parents have actually signed off on the abortion and that the forms are not falsified.
The House approved each measure on a 39-18 vote, and the House Judiciary Committee approved the bills on a 6-2 vote.
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
