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| Parental-notification abortion law delayed | |
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Published Friday, June 25, 1999, By LESLEY CLARK TALLAHASSEE - A law requiring doctors to tell the parents of unwed teenagers who want an abortion won't go into effect for at least 20 days because the state wants the time to prepare for a court challenge. Abortion-rights advocates who asked a circuit court judge Thursday for an emergency injunction to block the law from going into effect July 1 said the 20-day reprieve only postpones an eventual court battle over whether the law is constitutional. ``It's a win, but it's a very tiny win,'' said Charlene Carres, a Tallahassee lawyer who represents some of the 12 womens' groups, doctors and abortion providers who oppose the law, including Miami-based A Choice for Women. ``We're going to have to do this all over again in another two weeks.'' Circuit Judge Terry Lewis declined to issue the emergency ban after a lawyer for the Department of Health said the state was willing to wait 20 days before enforcing the law. The state agreed to the delay to give it enough time to prepare a case to fight the injunction, said attorney Kenneth Sukhia, a private attorney for the health department. ``It's a reasonable time to marshal evidence,'' Sukhia said, noting that he had just two days to prepare for what he called a ``hastily arranged hearing'' on Thursday. Parents must be told The parental notification measure, which Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law just two weeks ago, requires doctors to inform parents 48 hours before performing abortions on minors. Girls can ask a judge to waive the requirement, and married girls or those who already have minor children are exempt. Doctors who violate the law could face disciplinary action. The bill does not require that parents consent to the abortion. A 1989 parental-consent law was overturned by the state Supreme Court, which ruled it violated teenagers' privacy rights. Abortion-rights advocates said the parental notification law still violates a minor's right to privacy and serves no compelling state interest. ``The Supreme Court found there is a right in the Florida Constitution to choose abortion, and there is equal protection for minors as well as adults,'' said Bebe Anderson, a staff attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. Lawmakers who backed the measure, however, said some teens are too immature to make such an important decision and that parents should be consulted. The compelling state interest, they said, is to protect minor children and ``foster family unity.'' No injunction Anderson asked Lewis to issue an injunction despite the state's pledge not to enforce the law, but Lewis declined. He said both sides can schedule a hearing to debate the constitutionality of the law before the state begins to enforce the law. Otherwise, the abortion-rights providers can ask him to issue the emergency injunction. ``We've certainly met the requirements for an emergency injunction,'' Anderson said. ``I'm concerned that the providers in the state can feel comfortable. . . . It goes to the issue of the providers and minors needing the greater protection that comes from a court order.'' The state opposed an injunction, which could have been for longer than the 20-day period, which will begin when the health department and state Agency for Health Care Administration receive copies of Supreme Court rules regarding the law, which were released yesterday. ``We feel our written assurance is adequate,'' Sukhia said. ``We've accomplished what they intended to achieve.'' |
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