Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060336
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
ABORTION CONSENT BILL PROGRESSES IN HOUSE
For the seventh time in eight years, the House of Delegates is poised to pass a bill that would require that a parent be notified before an unmarried minor child has an abortion.Wednesday, delegates voted 62-35 to advance the bill to final passage. A final vote will come today.
Despite the apparent victory, anti-abortion advocates hold faint hope that the measure will survive in the Senate, where it has been rebuffed each year since 1986.
Already this session, the Senate Education and Health Committee has rejected a similar bill on an 11-4 vote.
The last time both chambers passed some version of the bill was in 1985. That measure died in a House-Senate conference committee on the last day of the session.
And while Wednesday's vote was a comfortable victory for supporters, the 62 votes for the bill was 10 less than it received just two years ago.
Del. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, the bill's sponsor, characterized the notice requirement as "knocking down the walls of concealment - the barriers" between parents and children.
Parents must sign off on report cards, driver's license applications and for medical treatments like a tonsillectomy, Reynolds argued. "But for an abortion, we require less . . . when the consequences are greater."
But in an impassioned speech that elicited applause, Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, argued that many doctors would stop performing abortions because of the stiff requirements the bill would place on physicians.
Jones went through the provisions line by line, arguing against requirements that doctors determine if a patient is younger than 18 and make a "reasonable effort" to contact parents. He also attacked provisions requiring doctors to determine whether a child is "emancipated" and thus exempt from the notice requirements. Under the bill, doctors could be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to $500.
Jones and Del. Marian Van Landingham, D-Alexandria, blasted a parental bypass provision that would allow a girl to seek a juvenile judge's approval for an abortion in lieu of notice to a parent.
"It's inconceivable that anyone would expect a young girl [to seek an abortion in court] unless it's a House dominated by male lawyers who are comfortable in courtrooms," Van Landingham said.
\ YEA OR NAY\ ON PARENTAL CONSENT
\ IN FAVOR: Dels. Steven Agee, R-Salem; Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville; Tommy Baker, R-Dublin; Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs; Willard Finney, D-Rocky Mount; Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville; Joseph Johnson, D-Abingdon; Lacey Putney, I-Bedford; Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville; Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke.
\ OPPOSED: Dels. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton; G.C. Jennings, D-Marion; Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg; Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY