SCOTUS and the NH Abortion Law

A unanimous decision. That's going to cause a buzz.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave New Hampshire a new chance to salvage -- though in a narrower form -- its law requiring that parents be notified if their teenaged daughter is seeking an abortion.

The Court, in a rare unanimous vote in an abortion case, ruled that lower courts may have gone too far in striking down the entire parental notice law, enacted in 2003. Declaring that pregnant teenagers sometimes need an immediate abortion to avert serious health problems, the Court said the New Hampshire law must be read to allow that when it occurs, which it suggested would be "in a very small percentage of cases."

If the law can be interpreted to make that exception, and still be in keeping with what the state legislature intended, the Court indicated, the remainder of the law may remain intact. The state law, as written, makes an exception for teenagers where an abortion is necessary to save the pregnant girl's life, but it does not make a health exception.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in what may be her final ruling as a member of the Court, wrote the decision. She summed it up this way in the opening paragraph:

"We do not revisit our abortion precedents today, but rather address a question of remedy: If enforcing a statute that regulates access to abortion would be unconstitutional in medical emergencies, what is the appropriate judicial response? We hold that invalidating the statute entirely is not always necessary or justified, for lower courts may be able to render narrower declaratory and injunctive relief."

Though I suppose this one was fairly narrowly argued.