A pregnant minor would have to receive counseling from a doctor, nurse or licensed counselor before getting an abortion under a new Democratic-sponsored bill. But most abortion-rights groups oppose the measure, arguing that pre-abortion counseling is already standard and that the requirements would retire some of the state's most veteran counselors.

The measure is an alternative to Republican-backed bills that would reinstate the state's parental notification law, repealed last year, which would require that parents be informed before their minor daughter has an abortion. This year's versions include an emergency health exception, which the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled was lacking from the original law.

The pro-counseling bill would require that before a girl under the age of 17 have an abortion, she talk with a licensed professional about having her parents or guardians involved in the decision as well as about the alternatives facing a pregnant woman, including keeping the baby, adoption or abortion. The girl would have to sign a form stating that she's received the counseling and heard the options.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Kathy Sgambati, a Tilton Democrat, and boasts six Senate co-sponsors as well as the support of Gov. John Lynch, whose spokesman said yesterday that the governor backs adult involvement in abortion decisions paired with safeguards for women.

"That bill certainly appears to accomplish those goals," said Colin Manning, a spokesman for Lynch.

Sgambati's measure has opponents on both sides: conservatives who say it does too little and abortion rights groups who see the requirements as unneeded and potentially harmful. Both sides say they think election-year politics are behind the bill. Rep. Fran Wendelboe, a New Hampton Republican who sponsored the parental notification bill with an emergency health exception, said she sees Democrats as "backed into a corner."

"That's the 'Oh my god, we need to do something to give us some cover' bill," Wendelboe said. "I think it's insulting to parents. I think it's worse than no parental notification at all. . . . What her bill is saying is we're not only going to take away your parental right, but we're going to give it to a stranger."

Several abortion rights groups oppose it, saying that the specific mandates in this bill would force out some veteran counselors and could increase the cost of abortions.

"What I see it as doing is lowering the standard of care for political reasons," said Grace LeClair, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire, who opposes the bill along with the leaders of the Feminist Health Centers in Concord and Portsmouth, the Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence and the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.

The requirements as written wouldn't include some of the trained but unlicensed counselors who've worked at the Feminist Health Centers since their founding in the 1970s, LeClair said.

One abortion-rights group, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, supports the proposed counseling law. The law only codifies what already happens at abortion clinics around the state, said Ann Larney, Planned Parenthood's director of public affairs.

"Any health provider has an ethical obligation to be sure that every patient is making an informed decision," Larney said.

Larney said the law may increase public understanding of that process. "To be honest, I'm not sure it's absolutely needed other than to make a policy statement," she said. "I'm not sure that the citizens of New Hampshire understand what a good job they do."

Bill co-sponsor Sen. Maggie Hassan, an Exeter Democrat, said that she doesn't expect the bill to change the pre-abortion counseling that already happens in clinics, but she supports it as a way of reassuring people that abortions for young women follow a careful process.

"What I hear from constituents is a concern, kind of, 'How do we know? How do I know that this happens?' " Hassan said. "I began to think that it's reasonable to ensure that we make a policy statement as a state, that this is part of a quality assurance measure for providers who do abortions."

Single page