Uphold N.H. abortion law, White House urges court

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration yesterday jumped into the legal dispute over a New Hampshire abortion law, arguing that the outcome could affect a final ruling on a federal abortion law that three courts have struck down.

In a legal brief filed with the Supreme Court, Department of Justice officials said New Hampshire's parental notification law for minors seeking abortion does not violate the Constitution, and urged justices to uphold it.

The court decided in May to review the 2003 New Hampshire law. An appeals court ruled it was unconstitutional because it didn't provide an exception to protect the minor's health in the event of a medical emergency.

The decision ''may have direct relevance to the government's defense of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act," Solicitor General Paul D. Clement wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief.

The law Congress passed and President Bush signed in 2003 also lacks an exception when the health of the mother is at risk. Judges in Lincoln, Neb., New York, and San Francisco have overturned the law on that basis.

The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis has upheld the Nebraska ruling. The other decisions also have been appealed and are expected by many legal specialists to eventually reach the Supreme Court.

The New Hampshire law requires physicians to notify parents or guardians at least 48 hours before they perform an abortion on a girl under 18. Most states, including Massachusetts, require parental notification or consent for minors seeking abortions. But almost all make an exception if a woman's health is at risk, Jennifer Dalven, deputy director of the national ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, has said. The New Hampshire law only makes an exception, Dalven has said, if death is imminent. If a pregnant teen faces less catastrophic medical problems, she must wait until her parents are notified.