The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996                TAG: 9603090437
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

PARENTAL NOTIFICATION BILL IS SENT TO PANEL THAT MAY NOT MEET THE SENATE COURTS COMMITTEE MAY NOT GET TO THE MATTER.

The issue of parental notification for minors' abortions was again in limbo Friday after Gov. George F. Allen's latest bill was sent to a committee that might not meet.

After a day of setbacks in the General Assembly, the Republican governor submitted a bill dealing with juvenile courts in hopes that a parental notification amendment could be tacked on.

The strategy: Introduce a bill that would be referred to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, which is thought to be friendlier to the proposal than is the Education and Health Committee, which has killed parental notice bills in the past.

That part of the plan worked. But Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County and chairman of the courts committee, didn't call a meeting and would not say whether he would before Sunday's expected adjournment.

On Thursday, a parental notification requirement added to a mental health bill was ruled not germane by the House of Delegates, which killed the measure. Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, said the new bill was ``tailored to be germane'' to parental notice.

Gartlan, who supports parental notification, said nothing in the rules prohibits such an end run around the usual legislative process. But he added that ``sometimes rules are manipulated and twisted.''

He would not say whether that was the case with Allen's new bill.

Planned Parenthood of Virginia lobbyist Karen Raschke was not so coy. ``The governor is slapping Virginia tradition in the face,'' she said.

Earlier in the session, the House passed a bill that would require a parent to be notified when an unmarried girl under 18 seeks an abortion. That bill was killed in the Senate Education and Health Committee. The same legislation was revived as an amendment to the mental health bill on the Senate floor, where it passed 25-15 on Thursday only to be killed in the House. Allen also sent down his own parental notice bill, which Education and Health rejected Thursday on a 9-6 vote.

KEYWORDS: PARENTAL NOTIFICATION GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB