House OKs bill requiring parental consent on abortions

A move to require Utah physicians to receive parental consent prior to performing abortions on teenage girls easily passed the House Friday.

By a 65-8 vote, HB85 advanced to the state Senate for consideration, where President John Valentine, R-Orem, suggested it may not move as quickly as it did in the House.

"I think there will be some debate on it, and I don't think it will sail," Valentine, R-Orem, said. "For one thing, right now I've got a full board and it will take some time to work through committee."

A second bill dealing with abortion, which would require physicians to notify a woman of options that could alleviate pain possibly felt by the fetus during the procedure, also passed Friday by a 63-8 margin.

HB85 is about much more than abortion, sponsoring Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, said Friday. It is also about protecting parental rights and helping teenage girls that Gibson believes are unable to make such a decision on their own.

"All three of these work together," he said. "Yes, we have to protect the lives of those babies. We also have to protect the lives and choices of these youth. And most of all, third, we need to protect the rights of those parents."

That said, Gibson does not deny his legislation is intended to cut down on the number of abortions performed on teens in Utah.

"I believe that we should be protecting the lives of these unborn children as much as possible," he said. "In fact, under most circumstances, I believe abortion to be wrong."

According to provisional data from the Utah Department of Health, 163 girls under the age of 17 received abortions in 2004.

Those procedures were performed under current Utah law, which requires physicians to notify the parents of minor patients. If passed, HB85 would modify that process to require doctors to receive consent from a girl's patients before performing an abortion.

The proposed law allows exceptions in cases of medical emergency, abuse or incest. It also allows girls under 18 to seek a court order allowing the abortion to take place without parental consent in certain cases, such as a judge's determination that the girl "is mature and capable of giving informed consent."

Outside of Utah, courts have struck down similar parental-consent statutes without a judicial bypass option. It is for that reason alone, Gibson said, the judicial exception is included in HB85.