For 35 years, New Hampshire law has been essentially silent on the issue of abortion. That is as it should be.

For 35 years, New Hampshire women and New Hampshire health care providers have benefited greatly from a government that respected them enough to stay out of this most personal decision. And for 35 years, when faced with unplanned pregnancies, New Hampshire women of all ages have had easy access to safe, swift, legal and largely hassle-free abortions. That is as it should remain.

A bill that will be heard today in a state Senate committee would change this fundamental state of affairs, and it should be rejected. This was not our initial position, but upon reconsideration, it is clear we were wrong.

The legislation in question would impose state-mandated counseling for teens considering an abortion. They would be required to talk to a state-licensed professional about involving their parents in the decision and about alternatives to abortion - and they would have to sign a form stating that they'd received such counseling. The bill would not require anything of pregnant teens intending to become parents or those planning to put their newborns up for adoption. Its unequal treatment may be unconstitutional - but at the very least it seems to tell girls that abortion is the worst of all their difficult options when for many, in fact, it may be the best.

The bill appears to be trying to solve a problem that does not exist. New Hampshire consistently has among the lowest rates of teen pregnancy in the nation, and no one has provided evidence that New Hampshire teenagers are being bamboozled into abortions that they don't want or don't understand. No one has impugned the training, technique or diligence of New Hampshire counselors, doctors and nurses who have been performing abortions for years.

The issue here is not the right of parents to help their daughters through a difficult time - most teens do turn to their parents in such circumstances, without prodding from state government. The bigger issue is the right of all of us not to be forced into parenthood until and unless we choose it. Legislation that makes abortion more onerous - for health care providers and for anxious teens - chips away at that right.

The politics of this bill are particularly fraught. Supporters include Planned Parenthood and some lawmakers who consider themselves pro-choice. Some consider the bill a compromise between those who have long supported New Hampshire law's silence on this issue and those who want to mandate parental involvement.

But will a vote in its favor inoculate vulnerable Democratic legislators (and the governor) from bogus election-season accusations from pro-lifers that they don't value the rights of parents? Unlikely. Will it keep anti-abortion lawmakers from filing parental notification bills and other similar restrictions over and over again? Not a chance.

This bill has divided the state's typically united community of abortion rights activists. But lawmakers will make the right choice on this issue if they do what they've nearly always done in the past: Stay out of it.