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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Senate on Monday gave tentative approval to a bill that would require pregnant teenagers to obtain parental consent before obtaining an abortion.
House Bill 85 was endorsed 26-3. The bill needs to go through one more vote in the Senate, although that final vote is on hold pending a decision about whether the measure will be funded. The bill carries a $31,500 price tag because it could affect the juvenile courts.
HB 85 applies to girls under 18 and also allows for a judicial bypass in situations where the pregnant girl is estranged from her parents or if abuse or incest were a factor.
A medical emergency or the health of the teen also are included as exceptions to consent in the bill.
The bill passed the House 65-8. Its sponsor, Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, has said the purpose behind the bill is to ensure that parents participate in the abortion decision, so young women don't act on the advice of a doctor or clinic counselor alone.
Utah has one of the lowest abortion rates in the country. In 2003, the most recent year where data from the Utah Department of Health are available, there were 3,338 abortions statewide. Of those, 527 were performed on girls between the ages of 15 and 19; another 24 were for girls under 15.
In the Senate Monday, HB 85 was amended slightly to reflect that a doctor cannot perform an abortion until receiving the written consent of a girl's parent or legal guardian.
Democrats also tried to amend the bill to allow for the courts to waive Utah's existing parental notification law, if a judge is granting the consent bypass.
Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, said that if a young woman was seeking a bypass, it might be likely that notifying her parents could put her in jeopardy.
"This allows for circumstances when were a minor could face some kind of abuse or treatment in her home that puts her health or safety at risk," McCoy said, explaining his proposed amendment. "It requires the judge to hear evidence and make a finding."
But the bill's Senate sponsor, Sen. Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, objected to the amendment, saying the state's current notification law, which has been in place since 1974, has not been challenged.
"It's interesting that as soon as (we) bring consent in, (notification) becomes a problem," Peterson said. "I would simply state, that since 1974, we haven't had a problem."
The amendment failed.
Democrats also used the debate to rail against state laws that limit the teaching of sex education in schools.
"My fear is that we have our priorities mixed around," McCoy said. "My fear with this bill is that we will put women in a difficult situation that will drive them out of state for the procedure at best and, at worse, cause some of these young women to take matters into their own hands."
Peterson said he appreciated McCoy's assertion about prevention, although he believes that abstinence should be taught.
"We're told to keep our morals out of school. I'm not so sure we shouldn't stand on these morals and yell them from the tops of the mountains," he said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
