New Curb on Abortion : Justices Uphold Notification of One Parent but Not Two : Consent Is Not Needed, Court Holds

The Supreme Court ruled today that states may require notification of one parent when unmarried girls seek an abortion. But it said mandating notification of both parents may interfere with the constitutional right to abortion.

The justices voted 6 to 3 to uphold an Ohio law requiring that one parent be notified. “We discern no constitutional defect in the statute,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote.

The court, by a 5-4 vote, struck down one version of a Minnesota law requiring notification of both parents. By another 5-4 vote, with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor changing sides, the court ruled constitutional a version that allows a minor to notify either both her parents or get a judge’s permission.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion for the court striking down the two-parent notification law.

“This requirement, ostensibly designed for the benefit of the minor, resulted in major trauma to the child, and often to a parent as well,” Stevens said. “In some cases, the parents were divorced and the second parent did not have custody or otherwise participate in the child’s upbringing.”

Dissenting, Kennedy wrote that “to deny parents this knowledge is to risk, or perpetuate, estrangement or alienation from the child when she is in the greatest need of parental guidance and support.”

But in upholding the two-parent notification rule only if a judicial bypass option is included, O’Connor said “the interference with the internal operation of the family” no longer exists.

Kennedy, writing for the court in the Ohio case, noted that the state law allows a minor to notify a judge rather than her parents if she wants an abortion. This, he said, shows “an abundance of caution and concern for the minor’s interests.”

He noted that today’s decisions leave unanswered a key question: whether a state law that requires notification of one parent can be constitutional if it does not include a judicial bypass option.

Today’s action did not appear to carry major impact for the court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

O’Connor is viewed as a pivotal vote on the future of that decision. Today marked the first time since joining the court in 1981 that she voted to strike down a state-imposed restriction on abortion.

While both the Ohio and Minnesota laws require parental notification of a minor’s plan to get an abortion, neither mandates parental consent. Thus, a girl could get an abortion over her parents’ objections provided that notification was made.

Of the 1.5 million legal abortions performed annually since 1973, about 12%--about 180,000 a year--have been for minors.

The rulings have no direct impact on a suit challenging a California law that would require consent of one parent or a judge for an unmarried minor’s abortion.

That law was scheduled to take effect in 1988, but was blocked by a San Francisco Superior Court judge in response to a suit that cited the state’s independent, broader constitutional right to privacy.