Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Governor Olene Walker has vetoed one of the parents' rights bill inspired by the Parker Jensen case, calling it misguided and open to interpretation.
Walker said she vetoed another bill passed by the Legislature that sought to give disabled schoolchildren a subsidy to attend private schools. And Walker used her line-item veto four times to alter an eight-point-27 (B)billion dollars state budget, reversing some of the Legislature's spending decisions.
Today was her last day to sign or veto bills and resolutions passed by the Legislature.
Walker signed a pair of abortion bills and a ban on gay marriage, but she said the abortion restrictions were largely symbolic and would have little or no effect on state policy, while voters would decide the gay marriage issue when a constitutional amendment goes up on the November ballot.
She vetoed bills that managed to get through the Legislature.
House Bill 140 would have required Juvenile Court judges to defer to a "mature" minor's wishes when deciding disputes between parents and child-welfare authorities over medical treatment for a child.
Walker said HB 140 didn't define mature minor in any way, even by age, and would have opened the door for minors to get abortions, contraceptives and other treatment without parental consent," Walker said.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
