Indiana court rules on abortion consent law

INDIANAPOLIS -- Minors need the consent of only one parent to get an abortion, even if their parents are divorced and have joint custody, an Indiana Court of Appeals panel decided.\nThe panel's three judges ruled unanimously Friday that a state law requiring only one parent's consent for a minor to obtain an abortion applies equally to girls under 18 whose parents live apart and have joint custody.\n"There is no rational reason to make it more difficult for the child of divorced parents to receive an abortion than for the child of married parents," Judge John Baker wrote in the opinion. "This would merely be visiting condemnation upon the head of an innocent child who is not responsible for her parents' divorce."\nThe appeals panel overturned a Dearborn County ruling in a case involving divorced parents with joint custody. Circuit Judge James Humphrey had ruled that in such cases, the consent of both parents should be required.\nThe 15-year-old girl in the case received an abortion after a Sept. 15 hearing last month. She is not identified in court documents.\nJacquelyn Bowie Suess, an Indiana Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented the girl and her mother, said the decision reaffirmed the notion that state law trumps civil contracts such as divorce agreements.\nIn Indiana, minors seeking an abortion must have the consent of at least one parent or permission from a judge.\nThe girl was about five months pregnant when the case came before the lower court Sept. 5. Attorneys for her father offered ultrasound images and medical literature to show the fetus was viable.\n"She was pretty far along, and if a child lives to be 20 weeks in Indiana, they ought to be allowed to continue," said John R. Price, an attorney for the girl's father. "Our law says the taking of a viable child in the womb is an unlawful act."\nJudge Humphrey agreed and blocked the abortion. The appeals panel reversed the ruling, saying state law requires a medical doctor to determine the viability of a fetus. The appellate judges did not address the question of when a fetus is considered viable.\nOf 12,109 abortions in Indiana in 1999, 2,329 were performed on girls ages 15 to 19 and an additional 69 abortions were performed on girls younger than 15, according to the most recent such statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.