The Supreme Court refused, without comment, to hear a challenge to a Virginia state law that requires minors to notify their parents at least 24 hours before obtaining an abortion.
Opponents of the law had charged that the law violates a young women’s constitution right to an abortion and attempted to block the law from enforcement immediately after its 1997 passage. An unanimous vote by judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law last August.
The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that parental consent laws must include some type of exception so that a minor could seek approval from a judge certain circumstances. However, the Supreme Court has never required similar exception for parental notication laws, which do not require parental approval for an abortion.
