UPDATED: Governor Palin Backs Parental Notification Bill

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Governor Palin held a press conference this afternoon with a bipartisan group of AK legislators to express her support for a bill that requires parental notification for a minor to have an abortion. Audio of the entire press conference can be heard here:

Gov. Sarah Palin is backing a bill that would require parental consent for a minor to have an abortion in Alaska.

Rep. John Coghill, a North Pole Republican, and Sen. Donny Olson, a Democrat from Nome, are the main supporters of the bill, and appeared with Palin during a news conference today in the Capitol.

UPDATED by Mel: Eddie Burke is interviewing Rep. John Coghill, one of the bill's sponsors, right now (7:10 p.m. EST).

UPDATE II by Mel: I listened to Rep. Coghill's interview with Mr. Burke. I'll try to provide a summary here, but if anyone finds audio of it later please let us know and we'll add it.

Rep. Coghill said that he appreciates Governor Palin's support of the bill, and believes that he has the votes to get it through the state House. He believes that the votes are there in the state Senate, but is worried that it will be held up by the Senate power structure as it was last year. This year's Senate "Bipartisan Working Group" consists of ten Democrats and six Republicans, and they have tremendous power in deciding what bills make it onto the Senate floor for a vote because they chair the Senate committees. Democrat Senator Hollis French chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and so he has the power to sit on the bill and prevent it from reaching the floor. However, Rep. Coghill said that he hopes that the Republicans in the group will create internal pressure in the "Bipartisan Working Group." He said that the Senate body as a whole can demand that the bill be allowed to go to the floor for a up-or-down vote. He also said that there is a judicial bypass section in the bill. In simple terms, judicial bypass allows a judge to waive parental notification in individual cases. A minor is allowed to request a confidential hearing to make her case that her parents should not be notified before she gets an abortion. The judge then has a set number of days to consider the minor's case and issue a decision. Should the judge decide against the minor, she would have the opportunity to appeal the decision before her parent(s) are notified. This provision is intended to protect minors who may be frightened to tell their parent or guardian, or who are emancipated.

UPDATE III by Mel:

Governor Palin has issued the following Press Release:

Palin Pushes Parental Consent Legislation
Joined by Rep. Coghill and Sen. Olson

February 26, 2009, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today was joined by Representative John Coghill, Senator Donny Olson and other lawmakers who offered their support for legislation that would require parental notice and consent before a minor can have an abortion. The governor stressed the broad support for the family-oriented bill. “The most important thing at stake is the right of Alaska’s children to receive the support and input of their parents as they face a life-changing decision,” Governor Palin said. “Certainly, if we are a society that mandates parental consent before our daughters get their ears pierced, or even take a Tylenol tablet at school, I would think that there would be support both for parents to have to give consent and be informed anyway before such an invasive procedure of an abortion would be performed on our underage daughters. I found it appalling that this issue could not pass last year in the 25th Alaska Legislature. Now, Alaska families have an opportunity for parents to finally have this right to help their children in this 26th Alaska Legislature.”

The House last year approved a parental consent bill that would allow parents to intervene in their teenage daughter having an abortion. The measure would have revised the parental consent bill the legislature approved in 1997 and that the Alaska Supreme Court eventually declared unconstitutional on a 3-2 vote. The measure failed in the Senate. Governor Palin and legislative supporters are optimistic new legislation could survive a legal challenge because many states have adopted similar legislation to Alaska’s bill.

Audio from today’s press conference can be found at the following link.

UPDATE by Ramrocks: Gov. Palin strikes the right tone when she said in her press conference that the government should not get between parents and their children.

If you question the need for this type of legislation, I suggest that you learn more about The Mona Lisa Project.

You can learn more about it here, here, here, and here. If you want to see just how sleazy Planned Parenthood's "Unseemly Empire" is, read this excellent expose from the Weekly Standard.

UPDATE by VO: If you're not familiar with the legislative machinations...here is the party makeup of the legislature. The Alaska House consists of 40 members: 22 Republicans and 18 Democrats. The Senate has 20 member, 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

Six of the Senate Republicans joined with the Senate Democrats to form a "majority," leaving four Republicans who are Palin supporters locked out. The six Republicans who joined the Dems are mainly Murkowskicrats, who are on the side of Big Oil interests in Alaska and are no friends to the Guv -- and this includes Republican Senate President Gary Stevens, who pushed through the "contempt" resolution against Todd Palin and others without giving them the chance to respond.

Two of the four "locked-out" Republican Senators, Fred Dyson and Tom Wagoner, joined with House members in a legal fight against the Tasergate Committee last year. These Senators are Palin defenders and have been frozen out of any power in the Senate as a result.

UPDATE II by VO: Don't be surprised to see these names quoted by the MSM as the voice of Alaskans in this debate: Jeffrey Mittman of the Alaska ACLU and Geran Tarr of the "Alliance for Reproductive Justice," whatever that is.

UPDATE II by Ramrocks: One of the "locked-out" Republicans is Sen. Gene Therriault, who made a brilliant defense today of Gov. Palin's caution about the porkulus.

UPDATE IV by Mel:
Video of the press conference:


UPDATE II by VO: Lawrence Wood gives some background on the politicking when a version of this bill was attempted last year:

Last year, the House approved such a bill, but the Senate played games and effectively killed it. Sen. Hollis French was the primary critic of the bill. Unfortunately, Republican Senator Majority Leader Lyda Green (R-Wasilla) refused to force the bill from French’s committee and onto the floor for a vote. The bill was then used as a political football by two of Sarah Palin’s political detractors.

Sen. Lyda Green and Sen. Charlie Huggins (R, N) then attempted to use the bill to derail a special session called by the Governor to address her Alaska Natural Gas Incentives Act (AGIA). Green and Huggins made a big public show of claiming the governor was ignoring the parental control act, when the special session had been called for a specific purpose. This was a blatant act to derail the AGIA legislation.

There may be similar problems in the Senate this year. The ADN has updated their original story with further details:

The measure may have trouble in the state Senate, where Senate President Gary Stevens said months ago that "far left and far right issues" would be off the table for his coalition of Democrats and Republicans.

Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he would give the bill a hearing. He hasn't yet analyzed it. Last year a similar bill died in his committee.

"My main concern is and has been that we pass bills that are constitutional," French said in an e-mail.