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Alaska and Florida Courts Allow Under Age Girls to Abort Without Parents’ Knowledge or Consent

Alaska Gov. calls Alaskan Supreme Court decision “outrageous”; will file for rehearing

By Hilary White
 
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, November 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alaska has joined the states in which an under age girl can get an abortion without telling her parents. The Alaskan Supreme Court ruled today that a law requiring parents to be notified when their daughters are planning to abort, was “unconstitutional.”
 
Alaska’s 1997 Parental Consent Act that required girls 16 years old and younger to get a parent's permission to receive an abortion, was challenged by Planned Parenthood. In a 3-2 vote on Friday, the Court ruled that the law infringes the child’s “rights to reproductive freedom”. The decision upholds a previous one made by the Superior Court.
 
Chief Justice Dana Fabe wrote that although the state “has an undeniably compelling interest in protecting the health of minors and in fostering family involvement” in such matters, Fabe wrote that the law “does not strike the proper constitutional balance between the State's compelling interests and a minor's fundamental right to privacy.”
 
Fabe admitted that “the constitution permits a statutory scheme which ensures that parents are notified.”
 
In the dissenting opinion, Justice Walter Carpeneti wrote, “Because the [Parental Consent Act ] is the least restrictive alternative which will effectively advance the state's compelling interests while protecting the child's constitutional right, we should hold that the Superior Court erred in invalidating it.”
 
Gov. Sarah Palin called the decision “outrageous” and has instructed Attorney General Talis Colberg to file a petition for a rehearing.
 
At the same time, Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that a 17 year-old girl may go ahead with an abortion that she believed her parents would object to on religious grounds. Florida has a 2005 law requiring abortionists to tell parents when their under 18 year-old daughters are planning an abortion, although their consent is not required. Under the Florida law, a girl can be granted an exception if a judge rules her “mature” enough to decide.
 
The Florida case surrounds the 17 year-old girl whose fiancé’s parents suggested an abortion. The Appeals court ruling overturns a previous decision by St. Lucie Circuit Judge Barbara Bronis who ruled that the girl’s request was the result of pressure from her boyfriend’s parents.
 
“She has not spoken to any medical experts,” Bronis wrote. “She has not taken it upon herself to educate herself about the medical risks. She fears disdain from her parents. The evidence was crystal clear that the only reason the petitioner filed this case is because the parents of the man with whom she conceived the child told her to do so.”
 
The decisions fly in the face of research that has found that between 60 to 80 per cent of girls aged 15 and under are impregnated by adult men. Furthermore, it has been revealed repeatedly that abortionists and their industry lobbyists regularly flout laws requiring them to report suspected cases of statutory rape, incest and child sexual abuse. 
 
Mark Crutcher, whose organization, Life Dynamics exposed the issue, said, “The American abortion industry has chosen to become paid accomplices of the pedophiles and sexual deviants who target underage girls.”
 
In Kansas this September, a federal appeals court dismissed a suit brought by abortionists against a state law requiring them, as well as teachers, health care providers and other professionals to report cases of child sexual abuse. An abortionist in Kansas City sued former attorney general Phil Kline who had issued an opinion that abortionists were required to obey the law protecting children. 
 
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Exposé Links Abortion Industry with Sex Abuse Crimes
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/may/02052101.html
 
No Action on Allegations of at Least 10 Unreported Child Rape Victims Aborted or treated by US Abortion Clinic
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07040509.html
 
Planned Parenthood Caught on Tape Covering Up Statutory Rape – Threatens Lawsuit to Hide Evidence
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07051504.html  ;

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