High Court to Hear Abortion Case
The Supreme Court agreed to hear only one case today. It involves parental notification rights in abortion cases. Scotus blog reports:
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide a long-unsettled issue of abortion law: the standard to be used in judging the constitutionality of a restriction on a women's right to end a pregnancy. The question is whether such a restriction is to be upheld if there is any circumstance in which it could be applied constitutionally. The Court for some time has not followed that approach in abortion cases, but has never explicitly repudiated it. The working standard the Court has applied is whether a restriction, as written, would put a burden on the abortion rights of a significant number of women.
The issue arises in the case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (docket 04-1144). The case also raises the question whether a parental consent law for minors' abortions must contain a health exception. At issue is such a law enacted in New Hampshire in 2003.
NARAL has issued a press release that should be online shortly stating that the decision "underscores the threat of President Bush to Roe v. Wade" and reminding us that "the constitutional protections of Roe v. Wade hang in the balance of a 5-4 court."
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