Father Fights to Reinstate New Hampshire Parental Notification Law
by Allie Martin
August 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute has filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case on behalf of a New Hampshire father and his mentally challenged daughter, asking that the high court reverse a lower-court decision that struck down a state parental notification law. The young girl in the case was the victim of repeated sexual abuse and coerced abortions. The case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, et al., began when a group of abortion providers challenged New Hampshire's parental notification law shortly before it was to go into effect. In the brief, the father of the abuse victim argued that the absence of a legal parental notification requirement allows child predators to prey on minors. He also noted that an overwhelming majority of Americans favor such parental notification laws, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld similar statutes in the past.
Liberty Legal Institute attorney Jonathan Saenz says there are two issues involved in the case. First of all, he contends, "It's a parents' rights issue. But it's also a protection issue as far as protecting the safety of young girls. We've seen just a whole host of cases out there where child predators prey on these young girls when they know their parents don't have to be notified when they get an abortion."
In the New Hampshire case, abortion was performed twice on the young, mentally challenged girl, whose parents were not informed of the coerced procedures, since there was no notification law in place to protect them and their daughter. "You can just imagine the heartbreak of this father," Saenz observes, "and his disgust after finding this out, and finding it out after the second time and [at the time] never knowing any of it was going on."
The pro-family lawyer feels it is outrageous that a parent in New Hampshire has to consent in person for a child to use a tanning bed, yet a minor can have an abortion without a parent's knowledge or consent. "Parents have a fundamental right to at least be notified if they're daughters are involved in a major medical procedure," he says.
Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel for Liberty Legal Institute, points out that parental notification can help protect young girls from child sex predators that would try to conceal their heinous crimes by forcing pregnant minors to have abortions. Shackelford says attempts by abortion providers to thwart that protection are "disgraceful."
