Court Reinstates Law Requiring Parental Permission for Abortions

A federal appeals court Monday reinstated a Minnesota law requiring girls seeking abortions to first notify their parents or get judicial permission.

The 7-3 decision by the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis reverses a decision last year by three judges from the same court who upheld an earlier ruling of the law as unconstitutional.

The Minnesota law was ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Donald Alsop of St. Paul in November, 1986. Alsop said the required 48-hour notice to both parents unduly burdened a minor’s right to seek an abortion.

Statute Struck Down

He struck down the entire statute, although he found permissible the procedure for seeking a judge’s authorization without parental notification.

But Appeals Judge John R. Gibson, writing for the majority, said the statute’s provision must be considered together.

“Considering the statute as a whole and as applied to all pregnant minors, the two-parent notice requirement does not unconstitutionally burden the minor’s abortion right,” he wrote.