Ipas welcomes Supreme Court decision in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood

The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on New Hampshire’s parental notification act, which requires that a guardian be informed 48 hours before a minor has an abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court today released their decision in the case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England et al.

The high court considered the constitutionality of New Hampshire’s Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act, which prohibited physicians from performing abortions on minors for two days following written notification to parents or guardians. The respondents who brought the case challenged the law on the basis that it did not allow a doctor to make emergency medical decisions to protect a woman’s health.

The nine-justice court unanimously decided to send the law back to the lower court to address this concern.  

Ipas President Elizabeth Maguire applauded the court’s decision.  “We are encouraged that all of the justices agreed on this point. The court’s decision in Casey was clear that a woman’s health is paramount.”

In the opinion delivered by the soon-to-retire Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the Supreme Court re-emphasized one of the key principles of the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, as well as the 1973 Roe v. Wade. While states may regulate abortion access, the justices cited Roe and Casey, which said that states could not restrict abortions that are “necessary, in appropriate medical judgment for preservation of the life or health of the mother.”

In its work around the world, Ipas sees the impact of restrictive abortion laws on women: 70,000 women die every year, and millions are injured as a result of unsafe abortion.  The detrimental impact on women’s health is increasingly recognized as a human rights concern.  In 2005, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in K.L. v. Peru that denying women access to legal abortion services is a violation of a woman’s basic human rights. 

“This decision reaffirms the vital role that the court plays in defining the limits of restrictive legislation,” Maguire stated.  “We must continue to be vigilant that women’s reproductive rights are not further eroded by laws that restrict access to safe abortion care.”

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258