Abortion News Roundup

This week has seen several news items on abortion.

Legislation (found via the Kaiser Network)

Arizona House Health Committee approves fetal pain notification bill

Utah House Health and Human Services committee passes parental consent and fetal pain bills, which move on to the full house

Court Cases

The Supreme Court sends Ayotte vs Planned Parenthood of Northern New England back to the lower court. The case addressed New Hampshire's parental notification law for minors, which required the woman to wait 48 hours after written notice is delivered to a parent or guardian. The case centers on whether this restriction is unconstitutional, as it does not contain an exception for the health of the woman. The Court commented that completely invalidating the statute (which the lower court had previously done) may be unnecessary because the law includes a provision for physicians to ignore notification restrictions to prevent the minor's death. It's a bit confusing, but the Supreme Court's decision is available here as a PDF. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood response is here. The New Hampshire Attorney General's brief on the case is here (PDF), along with the office's response to the Court decision. The Kaiser Network has a more thorough explanation. The New York Times also covered the decision.

Other

Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States - includes state law summaries, from NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation. (Found via Feministing)

San Francisco bus system features anti-abortion ads, angering some women (found via Feministing and Kaiser's Daily Women's Health Policy Report)

Technorati Tags: abortion; legislation; Reproductive Rights; Supreme Court
MeSH Tags: Abortion, Induced/legislation and jurisprudence; Supreme Court Decisions