ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
Abortion rights activists will lose an 18-year legislative battle this year, they said Wednesday, resigning themselves to defeat even as they rallied the capital on the anniversary of the court decision legalizing abortion.
Certain that lawmakers will soon require minors to tell a parent before getting an abortion, Planned Parenthood is already drafting a legal challenge to file when the bill passes.
"I expect the governor to sign it, and I expect to be in court a few days later," said Karen Raschke, Planned Parenthood's lobbyist and Virginia's chief abortion rights advocate.
"As far as the General Assembly goes, we don't expect to change anyone's mind."
Anti-abortion legislators have tried to require parental notification since 1979, always failing in the legislature or fetching a veto from the governor.
But this year, Gov. George Allen promises to sign the bill and a majority of senators and delegates are on record supporting it.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, would apply to women younger than 18. Opponents say they will attempt to lower that age, an effort that failed in both houses last year.
Earley's bill also allows juvenile court judges to override the law if the young woman would be in danger or face extraordinary hardship by telling her parents she is pregnant. Opponents will likely try to broaden the notification requirement to include other relatives or friends.
But because of a legislative technicality that placed the bill before a new committee this year, Raschke and others said they are focusing more on what to do after the bill passes.
Presuming Allen signs the bill into law, abortion rights groups plan to challenge whether it meets the legislative requirements of the state constitution. The question: if it conforms to a rule that the subject of a bill "shall be expressed in its title."
Earley's bill doesn't suggest abortion in the title, a point that is significant beyond any legal challenge the abortion issue itself might provoke. Bills mentioning abortion are historically assigned to the Education and Health Committee, which killed parental notification last year.
Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar assigned Earley's bill to the Courts of Justice Committee, which is expected to approve it. Anti-abortion legislators purposely wrote the proposal as a juvenile courts issue, so Schaar would send it to the friendly committee.
"I can't believe anyone misunderstanding this bill," Earley said.
But even Schaar did not know the bill was about abortion until a reporter told her Monday night.
"I think we have the bill drafted, pretty confidently, in good shape," Earley said.
He would say only that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the issue's chances, even as lawmakers on both sides talk about parental notification as if it were already on the books.
Both the Senate and the House of Delegates passed the measure last year, but it failed because of technicalities about its committee assignment.
Activists rallied in Richmond on Wednesday to note the 24th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
Coincidentally, Earley's bill was placed on the docket for a vote in the Courts committee Wednesday afternoon, but members voted to wait a week to allow public comment.
Parental notification has been debated in the Virginia General Assembly since Fairfax Sen. Joseph Gartlan introduced a version in 1979. Gartlan, a Democrat, is now chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee.
"The fact is that the women in the legislature feel very, very strongly that this bill should not be law," said Fairfax Sen. Janet Howell, a Democrat. "But, unfortunately, there aren't enough of us."
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB