ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992                   TAG: 9203060388
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE OKS ABORTION BILL

The House of Delegates on Thursday insisted that unmarried girls younger than 18 should have to tell a parent or judge before getting an abortion.

The state Senate passed a similar measure the day before, but had targeted girls younger than 16. Anti-abortion legislators claimed Thursday that they had enough support to get the Senate to back away from the lower age.

"I'm very optimistic that we do," said Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, who kept watch over the measure Thursday from the rear of the House chamber. The Senate settled on the 16-year-old cutoff by just one vote Wednesday.

Thursday's 62-35 House vote was quite a chore, provoking rambling debate even though that body approved a parental notification bill of its own a month ago.

The original House bill died in a Senate committee; parental notice was resurrected this week in the Senate, where supporters tacked it onto another bill dealing with juvenile courts.

"This is a punitive measure" for a pregnant girl, said Del. Leslie Byrne, D-Falls Church. "We're trying to make her more scared. We're trying to make her more frightened. We're trying to take away her rights."

"I don't think we can legislate this type of relationship between parent and child," said Del. Ford Quillen, D-Gate City.

Once the notice concept was approved, the House considered the Senate's 16-year-old age limit. Opponents of the lower limit argued that almost three-quarters of girls who would be affected by the bill are between 16 and 18.

The House voted 54-44 to reject the 16-year-old cutoff, sending the measure back so the Senate can decide whether to insist on it.

That's where Earley and other Republicans think they can prevail -- mustering 21 votes needed to send the measure directly on to the governor for signature.

Gov. Douglas Wilder has refused to say whether he will sign it.

Dels. Steven Agee, R-Salem, and Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, voted for the parental notification plan. Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, and Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke, voted against it.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLHY 


 by CNB