Indiana Senate panel advances bill requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortion

A Senate committee in Indiana has approved a bill that would require parents and guardians to be notified if their pregnant child tries to bypass them to obtain an abortion.

Senate Bill 404 was passed on Wednesday by the Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 6–4, IndyStar reported.

The current law in Indiana already requires a minor to seek parental consent for an abortion. However, the pregnant child can go to a court to receive a judicial waiver if she does not want to inform her parents, according to Indiana Public Media.

The bill advanced by the committee would allow the parents enter the courtroom and even testify on whether the child is competent enough to make the decision. Parents would also be allowed to sue adults who assist their child in obtaining an abortion without their consent.

Supporters of the measure argued that parents should be involved in deciding their daughter's well-being and whether she can go through with a surgical procedure such as an abortion.

"Parents have the constitutional right to determine the upbringing of their children, and that includes medical decisions. And so this is really just strengthening those rights," said Corrine Purvis, an attorney with Indiana Right to Life.

On the other hand, critics said that requiring the involvement of the parents could put the pregnant minors into dangerous situations as they are often afraid of being disowned by their families.

Purvis noted that the measure would allow parents to sue adults who pose as a parent of pregnant minors. She said that it would help ensure that minors are not being forced into having an abortion by boyfriends, pimps or sex traffickers.

"Minors who obtain secret abortions often do so at the behest of older men who impregnate them and then return them to abusive situations," said Sue Swayze, vice president of public affairs for Indiana Right to Life.

Indianapolis family law attorney Jane Glynn pointed to cases when the fathers molested the minors. She contended that the bill could give the offending father a pathway into the hearing.

Glynn and other opponents of the bill testified that the requirements to notify both parents, even if they live elsewhere or are absent, are unrealistic. They argued that it essentially "guts" the process for the pregnant child to bypass parents with the court's consent. A U.S. Supreme Court decision has stated that there must be a bypass procedure for minors.

Jane Henegar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, has said that her organization will sue the state if the bill becomes law.