A year after the repeal of a controversial – and unconstitutional -- law that required doctors to notify a minor’s parent before performing an abortion, abortion policy for teens is again roiling the statehouse.
The Senate proposal that’s provoked what one state house observer has dubbed the schism doesn’t – on its face – seem so controversial…..The democrat-sponsored bill, which enjoys the backing of Governor Lynch, would require abortion providers to counsel minors and encourage them to involve their parents or another adult in their abortion decision. According to lead sponsor Kathy Sgambati, the goal is simply to protect young women. Testifying before her Senate colleagues, Sgambati stressed that her bill envisions minimal changes, so minimal, she claimed that it would merely codify the status quo.
"It mirrors protocols that already exist in most clinics. We are simply taking best practices and making them state policy."
Sgambati’s argument was echoed by the state’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. Spokesperson Ann Larney told Senators the measure is fully squares with what she termed fundamental prochoice principles.
"Those principals include protecting the health and safety of our patients, ensuring the decision about whether to carry a pregnancy to term is made by the patient without coercion, making sure that there are no barriers to reproductive health care services including abortion, and protecting the right of the pregnant woman to make the decision with her doctor; senate bill 527 does that."
But not all – or even most – local abortion rights groups see it that way. Grace LeClair of NH chapter of National Abortion Rights Action League --or NARAL -- spoke for many when she questioned what she sees as teh bills bias: It mandates counseling for girls seeking abortion, but not for minors set on seeing their pregnancy to term.
"By singling out abortion and abortion providers and those young women choosing abortion for special scrutiny, it may send a signal about abortion that we would like to avoid."
Other criticisms went further. Concord Obstetrician NH Og Young is president of the NH Medical Society. He says the bill is unneeded and sets a dangerous precedent for government intrusion into the doctor’s office.
"I am concerned that this law allows government to be allowed in the lives of our patients in ways that are unhealthy. I am concerned that this law and others that could follow will undermined the relationship between physician and patient, will undermind the trust so fundamental to good care."
This dispute over the legislation has cause friction among people who generally find themselves on the same side of the abortion issue. It does not help that some lawmakers believe that the proposed legislation is a political maneuver, an election–year device to sidestep a high-profile debate over parental notification. If that’s true, it's unclear how well that will work. One of the lead sponsors of a strict parental notification bill, New Hampton Republican Fran Wendelboe says this legislation puts the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
"So the abortionist will be the unbiased person cancelling the child, or the abortionist nurse? Someone who works in an abortion clinic is an advocate for abortion and should not be considered and unbiased person for counselling a child considering abortion."
The adult involvement bill will be voted on by the full senate by March 20th, as will a proposal to require parental nofication for a minor’s abortion.
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