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Palin voices support for bill requiring parental consent for abortions

by Rhonda McBride
Thursday, February 26, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin announced her support Thursday for a bill that would require parental consent for pregnant minors seeking an abortion.

Other lawmakers said they would like to see the bill pass this session.

The bill would revise a law passed by the Legislature in 1997 that was later overturned by the Alaska Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 2007.

North Pole Republican Rep. John Coghill, one of the main sponsors of the bill, said those problems have been addressed.

"I think this particular bill has found that balance," Coghill said. "It gives the individual choices. But right now the way the court stands, it puts an absolute barrier between the parent and the child.   It does not allow the parent any right to have information."

Palin said now is the time to pass such a bill.

"When is this going to happen?  When is the full court press finally going to take place here and we get this legislation passed?" Palin said.

But pro-choice advocates fear the bill would promote pregnant teens to find other means of abortion.

"The unintended consequences is that any woman of any age, if she has decided to terminate a pregnancy, there isn't anything we can do stop her," said Clover Simon, Alaska vice president of Planned Parenthood. "We saw that prior to abortion being legal. Women did all kinds of things to terminate a pregnancy, and I think we're going to see that with young women as well."

In certain situations, pregnant teens could bypass their parents, but they would first have to go through a court.

Even so, Planned Parenthood says the new bill, if passed, would eventually be overturned in the courts as unconstitutional -- again.

Contact Rhonda McBride at rmcbride@ktuu.com