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WASHINGTON, May 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a repeal of the New Hampshire law mandating parental notification before a minor girl there could obtain an abortion.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England successfully challenged New Hampshire’s parental notification law in 2000, when a 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled the law unconstitutional because it did not have an exception for the so-called “health” of the mother.

The Supreme Court upheld a similar challenge to the Minnesota parental notification law in 1990, although in 2000 the high court ruled the partial-birth abortion ban unconstitutional because it did not include an exception for the health of the mother. The exception for ‘health’ has proven to be a wide open door for abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy, with the term ‘health’ being interpreted so broadly as to make it effectively meaningless.

Citizens for Life executive director Roger Stenson told the Washington Times that the 1990 Supreme Court decision was virtually indistinguishable from the issue now before them. “Unless one of those justices changes their mind again,” the high court should act the same way and reverse the decision of the 1st Circuit to maintain the New Hampshire law, Stenson said.

New Hampshire officials argue in their appeal that it is not necessary for the notification law to have a specific health exception, as at least 34 other state abortion laws already cover this. In addition, the 2000 partial-birth abortion ruling does not necessarily require that all abortion laws include the mother’s health exception, they said.

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