State Senate faces decision on abortion notification

CARSON CITY — Nevada senators will decide if the state needs a law requiring parents to be notified if their minor daughter wants an abortion.

They have just a week to make their decision before the legislative session ends.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee held a hearing Monday for Assembly Bill 405, which would require parents to be notified if their daughter younger than 18 seeks an abortion. Pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion activists have sparred over the proposal, which would revive a law that requires parental notification.

Supporters say it will put ending a pregnancy on par with getting a tattoo or having an ear pierced, both procedures that require parental input.

“This is not parental consent,” said Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, and the bill’s sponsor. “This is simply parental notification.”

He stressed that 38 other states have had similar laws on the books for years, including stricter laws than his proposal. AB405 passed the Assembly on April 17 on a party-line 24-17 vote with Republicans in support.

The bill was originally introduced by Speaker John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas. He later announced that the bill would not be heard and would instead be the subject of an interim lawmaker study before the 2017 session.

But the Assembly Republican Caucus decided to hear the measure. It came out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which Hansen chairs, on a party-line vote.

The bill’s backers said parental notification can help ensure children who have an abortion receive support after the surgical procedure. They also said that the lack of notification gives people other than parents a greater voice in the teen’s decision, including bullying boyfriends and pimps.

The bill also has a judicial bypass process that allows a minor to seek a court order from a judge to proceed with an abortion without parental notification.

Opponents say the bill would set up barriers and be a government intrusion into the right of a minor girl seeking an abortion.

Elisa Cafferata, president and CEO of Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said the legislation would force young women in abusive homes to make a choice between facing more abuse at home or going through a court process to avoid notification.

She also said minors currently can access other services without parental notification, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and medical care during a pregnancy.

Abortion rights activists say the abortion issue has been long settled in Nevada because voters in 1990 approved the Freedom of Choice Act. The ballot initiative upholds a Nevadan’s right to abortion even if the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is overturned. A 1985 parental notification law in Nevada was challenged by Planned Parenthood and a Reno doctor.

The Legislative Counsel Bureau reviewed the bill’s language and case law and believes it would withstand a court challenge.

The committee didn’t take action Monday. Committee chairman Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, said he doesn’t yet know if the bill has enough support to pass the full Senate.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1.