THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603100161
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
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 F. Allen, who used his legislative prerogative to submit another bill to the Senate's sympathetic Courts of Justice Committee on Friday. He hoped senators would amend parental notification onto it and pass it through the full Senate.
But Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., 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 gave an emotional speech on the Senate floor, supporters withdrew attempts to revive the issue 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, bills reached the governor's desk, only to be vetoed. Always an emotional topic, abortion - and the parliamentary twisting that comes with controlling it - regularly consumes the legislature whenever it comes up.
``The only thing I plead guilty to is perseverance,'' said Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, chief sponsor of parental notification. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
The Virginian-Pilot
STATE BUDGET
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KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY ABORTION PARENTAL NOTIFICATION by CNB