
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990                   TAG: 9006260220
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HIGH COURT LIMITS STATES' RIGHTS BARRING ABORTION

The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Minnesota law that required pregnant teen-agers to inform both parents before obtaining an abortion, but said that such laws are constitutional if they give minors the opportunity to ask a judge to waive the notification requirement.

The court divided 5-4 on both aspects of the decision, with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor the pivotal vote.

In her first vote to strike down an abortion restriction, O'Connor agreed with the court's liberals that a simple requirement that a pregnant minor inform both her parents before getting an abortion is unconstitutional.

But she voted with conservatives to find that the two-parent notification requirement is constitutional so long as a minor has the opportunity to convince a judge that informing one or both parents would not be in her best interest, or that she is mature enough to make the abortion decision on her own.

The justices faced this dual decision because Minnesota had enacted two alternative forms of the law, and both were appealed to the Supreme Court.

A year ago the court made new law by giving the states wider leeway to impose restrictions on the right to abortion. In effect, Monday's rulings set some limits on states' freedom to limit abortion.

The decision in Hodgson vs. Minnesota represented a defeat for the Bush administration, which had urged the court to use the case to reverse the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973 and rule that there is no fundamental constitutional right to an abortion. At the very least, Solicitor General Kenneth Starr argued, the court should find that minors have no fundamental right to an abortion without their parents' knowledge.

But abortion rights advocates said Monday they considered the new decisions a defeat for them. They complained that the court had in effect invited states to pass legislation requiring pregnant teen-agers to notify their parents about planned abortions. And several abortion rights groups expressed alarm that a majority of the justices no longer appear to be treating abortion as a fundamental constitutional right, and has relaxed its standard for testing other kinds of abortion restrictions.

Anti-abortion groups generally praised the decision and said it would spur them to continue their efforts to enact further restrictions in state legislatures across the country.

by CNB