Alaska will pay nearly $1 million in legal fees to Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs after the state Supreme Court struck down a parental notification law, the Alaska Dispatch News reports (Herz, Alaska Dispatch News, 10/22).
Background
Abortion providers and Planned Parenthood challenged the law, noting that it could be especially harmful to teenagers whose parents are abusive.
The law, which took effect in 2010, required a physician providing abortion care to a minor to inform the minor's parents at least 48 hours prior to the procedure. The law permitted minors to seek judicial bypass, and it included a limited exception in instances of medical emergency. The law did not apply to women ages 16 or 17 who were married, financially independent from their parents or who had court documentation stating that they were legally emancipated. The law required that a minor facing parental abuse produce a statement, signed by herself and a witness of the abuse, in order to obtain abortion care without parental notification.
As written, the law allowed a minor's parents to sue the provider for damages. A lower court struck down that provision, though the state sought its reinstatement. The lower court ruling, which upheld the notification law, also had reinstated a provision that imposes criminal fines of up to $1,000 and five years in prison for providers who knowingly violate the law.
In July, the Alaska Supreme Court struck down the law, ruling that it violated the equal protection guarantee of the Alaska Constitution by presenting a "discriminatory barrier to those minors seeking to exercise their fundamental privacy right to terminate a pregnancy" (Women's Health Policy Report, 7/25).
Latest developments
Superior Court Judge John Suddock on Wednesday approved the $995,000 settlement to close the lawsuit. Chief Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh said the settlement averted a potentially costly dispute over the plaintiffs' attorney fees.
According to the Dispatch News, the payment is dependent on the money being included in next year's state budget.
Comments
When asked about the settlement, Jessica Cler, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, said the group would continue to file legal challenges against laws "that create barriers to safe and confidential reproductive health care."
Separately, Jim Minnery, executive director of the antiabortion-rights group Alaska Family Action, said he would pursue a constitutional amendment that would reinstate the overturned parental consent requirement. Minnery is also working to remove from the state Supreme Court two justices, up for reelection this November, who struck down the requirement (Alaska Dispatch News, 10/22).
