New Hampshire AG Ayotte Asks Federal Judge Not To Invalidate Entire Parental Notification Law, Uphold Judicial Bypass Rules

New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R) on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Joseph DiClerico to reject requests from abortion-rights advocates to invalidate a law (HB 763) that requires physicians in the state to notify by certified letter a parent or guardian of a minor who is seeking an abortion at least 48 hours before performing the procedure, the Concord Monitor reports (Timmins, Concord Monitor, 12/30/06). The law also bars parents from forbidding the procedure, and the notification requirement could be bypassed by a judge if a doctor determines that the minor's life is in danger. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England; the American Civil Liberties Union; the Concord Feminist Health Center; the Feminist Health Center of Portsmouth, N.H.; and Manchester, N.H.-based ob-gyn Wayne Goldner in November 2003 filed the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. DiClerico and the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently struck down the entire law. Ayotte appealed the lower courts' ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that the judicial bypass clause in the measure, combined with other state laws that allow doctors to act in an emergency, protect a woman's health. The Supreme Court in January 2006 unanimously ruled that the lower courts should not have invalidated the entire measure and ordered lower courts to review the legislative intent regarding exceptions to the law for medical emergencies. NARAL Pro-Choice America in October 2006 filed a friend-of-the-court brief with DiClerico saying that Ayotte essentially is asking the judge to rewrite the law -- a function that the group says should be left to the state Legislature. The brief also said that "[a]lthough it may seem counterintuitive, the New Hampshire Legislature probably would have preferred no parental involvement law at all to one with a health exception" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 10/5/06).

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