Parental Consent Bill Passes State Senate
By Byron LaMasters
Just when we thought it was dead, the parental consent bill has passed both the House and Senate in the past couple of days. This afternoon, it passed the Senate by a vote of 24-5:
Parents would have to consent before their young daughters could have an abortion under legislation approved Wednesday in the Senate.
Current law requires girls under 18 to notify their parents before having an abortion. If a girl can prove informing her parents would result in abuse, a judge can bypass the notification.
This bill would require doctors to get consent from the parent of a girl under 18 before they could perform an abortion.
The House gave final approval to an abortion consent bill Tuesday. The House bill also prohibits abortions for women who have carried a child for more than 26 weeks, unless having the baby would jeopardize the woman's life or the baby had serious brain damage.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 3,499 abortions were performed on girls younger than 18 in Texas in 2002, the most recent year for which such data is available.
The Senate bill was approved on a 24-5 vote, with little debate.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at May 18, 2005 02:44 PM
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