                                ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996                 TAG: 9603110050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER

NOTIFICATION BILL FAILS, AGAIN HOUSES KILL EACH OTHER'S MEASURES

After a brief revival, a bill requiring parental notification when minors seek abortions was laid to rest for the year Saturday, unable to surmount the procedural obstacles that kept it from becoming law.

Each house of the General Assembly passed a strict parental notification bill by a comfortable margin this year. The plans were virtually identical - prohibiting doctors from performing abortions on anyone younger than 18 without notifying a parent or guardian.

But for different reasons, each house killed the other chamber's bill, keeping the proposal off the books.

Supporters had pinned their hopes on Gov. George Allen, who used his legislative prerogative to submit another bill Friday to the Senate's sympathetic Courts of Justice Committee. He hoped senators would amend parental notification to it and pass it through the full Senate.

But Sen. Joseph Gartlan, chairman of the committee, refused Saturday to call a meeting, even though he opposes abortion and routinely votes for parental notification. The history and integrity of the assembly were more important, he said.

After Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, gave an emotional speech on the Senate floor, supporters withdrew attempts to revive the issue at this session. But they pledged to push the limits of the rules again sometime, if necessary, to pass a law that more than two-thirds of the state's lawmakers support.

Some form of parental notification legislation has died every year for the past decade, twice reaching the governor's desk only to be vetoed. Always an emotional topic, abortion - and the parliamentary twisting that comes with it - regularly consumes the legislature whenever it comes up.

"The only thing I plead guilty to is perseverance," said Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, chief sponsor of parental notification.

LENGTH: Short :   43 lines
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996

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