Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Parental Notice

The Supreme Court of the United States this morning issued its opinion in the Planned Parenthood case involving the challenge by Planned Parenthood to the parental notification statute of New Hampshire.  We asserted in our briefs that the First Circuit Court of Appeals went too far in striking down this parental notification statute. 

The opinion of the Supreme Court was unanimous.  Justice OConnor wrote the opinion, noting that:  In the case that is before us, . . . we agree with New Hampshire that the lower courts need not have invalidated the law wholesale.  The Court established that States unquestionably have the right to require parental involvement when a minor considers terminating her pregnancy, because of their strong and legitimate interest in the welfare of [their] young citizens, whose immaturity, inexperience, and lack of judgment may sometimes impair their ability to exercise their rights wisely.   The Court acknowledged that [i]n some very small percentage of cases, pregnant minors, like adult women, need immediate abortions to avert serious and often irreversible damage to their health.  The Court went on to say that because this is such a small percentage of the actual cases where abortions are performed on minors, invalidating the statute wholesale would not be warranted.

The Court noted in the end that [i]n this case, the courts below chose the most blunt remedypermanently enjoining the enforcement of New Hampshires parental notification law and thereby invalidating it entirely.  The Court went on to conclude that the decision of the lower court to invalidate the entire parental notification statute was not justified. 

The Supreme Court got it right in determining that the appeals court went too far by declaring the parental notification law in New Hampshire unconstitutional.  The undivided decision by the high court underscores the fact that parents have a critical role to play in the health and well-being of their children especially when considering an abortion.  While the ruling is very narrow in scope, the fact is that the New Hampshire parental notification lawand others like itcan survive a constitutional challenge. 

This will probably be Justice OConnors last opinion as a Supreme Court Justice.  The fact that the Court was unanimous here is important and sends the message that parental notification laws and parental involvement with their children is very important.