A new federal move to limit teen abortions

In all, 32 states require some form of parental involvement in a minor's abortion, with most defining "minor" as someone under age 18. (In a few states, 17 is the age.) Abortion-clinic operators have noted that since the advent of parental-involvement laws in the late 1980s, minors are often having abortions later in pregnancy than they used to, though statistics are difficult to come by. For some teens, the delays have pushed them beyond 14 weeks of pregnancy, the point at which some states require a hospital abortion and other restrictions.

Opponents of abortion rights argue that the bill appropriately encourages more family involvement when a teen finds herself in a crisis pregnancy. On the issue of health exceptions, a major sticking point on much abortion legislation, abortion foes say the bill adequately addresses life-threatening health emergencies.

And, write officials of the National Right to Life Committee in an April 22 letter to Congress, "in a case in which a minor has a genuine serious physical health problem, that is all the more reason that a parent should be involved. Only the parent is likely to know the child's full medical history, and it is likely to be a parent who must recognize and respond to an infection or other complications of an abortion - complications that a parent might well overlook if he or she does not even know that an abortion has occurred."

At a hearing on Capitol Hill last month, the mother of a 14-year-old girl from Pennsylvania told the story of how her pregnant daughter was taken by her boyfriend's parents into neighboring New Jersey, which has no parental-notification rules, for an abortion, which she did undergo.

The woman testified that she knew her daughter was pregnant and that, in fact, "my daughter [had chosen] to have the baby and raise it. My family fully supported my daughter's decision to keep her baby and offer her our love and support."

Under CIANA, the New Jersey clinic would not have been allowed to perform the abortion without parental consent or a judicial bypass.

Opponents of CIANA argue that the bill fails to pass constitutional muster in many ways. Jennifer Dalven, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, lists three:

First, the bill contains no exception for circumstances when the health of the minor is endangered. The bill does discuss cases when a minor's life is endangered, but health is not addressed. Abortion foes object to health exceptions, saying they are used to cover emotional distress and could be employed for any abortion.

Second, there is no judicial waiver option in states with no parental-involvement laws.

And third, Ms. Dalven says, the bill violates guarantees of equal protection under the Constitution. Specifically, she says, the bill fails by requiring a pregnant minor to comply with her home-state laws in addition to those of the state where she intends to undergo an abortion.

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