SB 5615 - DIGEST

Declares that the purpose in enacting this parental notification and consent law is to further the important and compelling state interests of: (1) Protecting the rights of parents to rear children who are members of their household;

(2) Fostering family unity and preserving the family as a viable social unit; and

(3) Reducing teenage pregnancy and unnecessary abortion.

Provides that a physician shall not perform an abortion upon an unemancipated minor or upon an incompetent person unless the physician has given forty-eight hours actual notification and consent to a custodial parent or to the guardian of the pregnant unemancipated minor or pregnant incompetent person of the physician's intention to perform the abortion.

Declares that any physician who intentionally performs an abortion with knowledge that, or with reckless disregard as to whether, the person upon whom the abortion is to be performed is an unemancipated minor or an incompetent person, without providing the required notification and consent shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

Declares that a person who coerces a minor to have an abortion is guilty of a misdemeanor.