Pro-Life News in Brief

By Liz Townsend

Florida Parental Notice Law Ruled Unconstitutional

The Florida Supreme Court struck down the state's 1999 parental notification law, ruling July 10 that parents do not have the right to be informed before their minor daughter has an abortion.

"I'm really disappointed," pro-life Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters, according to the St. Petersburg Times. "It's hard to believe that we live in a society where parents wouldn't be notified of an abortion, which is a very profound decision."

Pro-life groups condemned the court's 5-1 decision. "Using faulty reasoning and fractured judgment, the Florida Supreme Court has trampled on the rights of parents to protect their minor daughters from male predators," Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC state legislative director, told NRL News. "Florida parents are outraged and I predict that you haven't heard the last of this."

The law was passed and signed by Gov. Bush in 1999, but has never gone into effect. It would have required abortionists to notify a minor girl's parents 48 hours before she could receive an abortion, the Times reported. The law contained a judicial bypass provision and an exception for medical emergencies.

The court ruling followed a previous Florida Supreme Court decision in 1989 that overturned a parental consent law. In both cases, the justices ruled that parental involvement in abortion would violate the girls' right to privacy. They found that the state had no "compelling interest" to "interfere" with this privacy right when a minor seeks an abortion, according to the Times.

The Florida court decision runs counter to laws in many other states and to decisions of the highest federal court. "Parental involvement laws are in effect in 25 states," Balch explained. "These laws have been upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on numerous occasions, and they have the support of the vast majority of the public."

Gov. Bush said that he will consider asking the legislature to pass another parental involvement bill, the Times reported.

Schindler-Schiavo Receives Another Death-Sentence Reprieve

The Florida 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled July 25 that a judge must wait an additional 30 days before scheduling the death of brain-injured patient Terri Schindler-Schiavo, according to the Tampa Tribune. A little over a week later, the Florida Supreme Court declined to lift the lower court's stay.

The case continues to follow a labyrinthine path through the courts, with Schindler-Schiavo's husband, Michael, on one side asking to be allowed to remove her feeding tube, according to the Tribune and her parents on the other insisting their daughter should be allowed to live. Michael Schiavao's attorney had asked the state's highest court in an emergency motion to lift the month-long stay.

Schindler-Schiavo sustained brain damage when she collapsed in her home on February 25, 1990, after an apparent heart attack deprived her brain of oxygen for several minutes, according to the Tribune. She currently lives at Hospice House Woodside in Pinellas Park.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge George Greer has ruled in Michael Schiavo's favor twice, once in 2001 and once in November 2002, according to the Associated Press. Each time, Schindler-Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were able to delay the order by appealing to higher courts, although Terri was deprived of food and fluids for 60 hours in 2001 before the Schindlers received a temporary injunction, the Miami Herald has reported.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court heard the most recent appeal. On June 6 the panel upheld Greer's 2002 decision and told Greer to schedule a date to remove Terri's feeding tube, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Again, the Schindlers filed an appeal, asking that the entire 13-judge panel hear the case. However, the court refused this motion July 9, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Two weeks later, on July 25, the court gave the Schindlers one month to prepare an appeal to the state Supreme Court, according to the Tribune.

"This ruling gives me breathing room" to file the appeal, Pat Anderson, the Schindlers' attorney, told the Tribune.

Delaware Informed Consent Law Struck Down

A district court judge ruled in June that Delaware's informed consent law is unconstitutional. Attorney General Jane Brady announced July 9 that her office will not appeal the ruling, according to the News Journal.

"We are disappointed that the attorney general has declined to appeal the decision," Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC state legislative director, told NRL News. "Giving a woman some time to reflect on information regarding an abortion and alternatives to abortion is common sense. Time to reflect on any life-changing decision is recognized as reasonable by a majority of Americans."

Although the law was passed in 1979, it remained unenforced until 2002, when Brady sent a recommendation to the state's Division of Professional Regulation that it should go into effect. Under its provisions, doctors would have to explain the abortion procedure, risks, and alternatives, and the woman would then give written consent, according to the News Journal. She would be able to receive an abortion after waiting 24 hours to consider her decision. The law was exempted only in emergencies when the mother's life is endangered, the News Journal reported.

Pro-lifers expressed approval that women in Delaware would be given the opportunity to make an informed decision about their unborn children. However, abortion clinics immediately brought a lawsuit to strike down the law, and U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson ruled in their favor in June.

Robinson found that the law was unconstitutional because it did not contain an exception when the health of the mother is in question, according to the News Journal.

"Most states have time periods before a vasectomy or sterilization can be performed or before someone can get married," said Balch. "Requiring a reflection before an abortion is not unreasonable and has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as constitutional."

Australian Man Pleads Guilty to Assisting Suicide

Alexander Gamble Maxwell, 56, pled guilty July 24 to helping his wife commit suicide using procedures found in Hemlock Society founder Derek Humphry's book, Final Exit, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Margaret Maxwell, 59, was reportedly diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994.

Although Victoria, Australia, Supreme Court Justice John Coldrey sentenced him to 18 months in jail, Maxwell will not spend any time in prison after Coldrey suspended the entire sentence.

Margaret Maxwell died October 19, 2002, in the couple's holiday home on Phillip Island, near Melbourne. Mr. Maxwell testified that he gave his wife sleeping tablets and morphine, Australian news agency AAP reported.

After she became unconscious, he placed a plastic bag over her head and filled the bag with helium, which killed her. The procedure was detailed in Humphry's book.

Mr. Maxwell told the court that while he did not support his wife's suicide plans, he "felt obliged to help her," according to the Herald.

Justice Coldrey justified his suspended sentence by calling the case one "where justice may be tempered with mercy," the Herald reported.

Pro-lifers said that euthanasia should never be condoned by society in any way. "We welcome the conviction, for it demonstrates that the taking of a life, no matter how compassionately motivated, is breaking the law," David Cotton, spokesman for the NSW Right to Life Association, told the Herald. "If we were to compare sentences, we would say lenient sentences do weaken the protection that homicide laws give society."