AUSTIN, Texas, May 19 (UPI) -- The Texas Senate has passed and sent to the House a bill requiring parents to give written permission for their minor daughters to get an abortion.
Abortion opponents cheered the 25-5 vote Wednesday as a "victory for parents," while abortion rights advocates said it would make little practical difference, The Dallas Morning News reported. The measure has widespread support in the House.
The current Texas law requires only that parents be notified if their young daughter is seeking an abortion. If the bill passes, Texas would join 20 other states in requiring parental consent.
Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, cited state figures showing 3,500 girls 17 or younger had abortions in 2003.
"In none of those cases did parents have the legal right to intervene to protect their little girls from abortion," he said, adding the Senate bill would change that.
Dallas lawyer Susan Hays, who represents young women in the abortion legal process, said the main fear of most teenagers is their parent's learning that they are pregnant and this would happen under either law.
