The Alaska Supreme Court has overturned a 10-year-old state law requiring parental or judicial consent for a teenager to obtain an abortion, calling it an infringement on a pregnant teen’s "constitutional right" to reproductive freedom.
The law was passed in 1997 but was never enacted because of court challenges from Planned Parenthood and others. Gov. Sarah Palin immediately condemned the high court ruling as outrageous and an infringement on "a parent's right and duty to make sure they're looking out for their child's best interest."
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, noted that 24 other states have similar consent laws. “And yet three justices in Alaska arrive at the inane conclusion that this interferes with the ‘rights’ of a young teenage girl to take another human life through a potentially dangerous medical procedure?” he said. “No constitution that permits such activity is worth the paper it's printed on. And this is the same girl who needs parental consent to take aspirin at school?
“This particular court has been routinely imposing its liberal judicial will on Alaskans for at least a decade in areas like same-sex 'marriage' and abortion, and is a textbook example of an activist court attempting to mold Alaska in its own frightening image.”
