Missouri lawmaker wants more steps before minors' abortions

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state lawmaker says Missouri's abortion laws need stronger steps to ensure the person giving parental consent for a teenage girl is actually her legal guardian.

A House panel heard testimony Tuesday on legislation from Rep. Sonya Anderson that would require parents or legal guardians to provide written proof of their relationship to the minor seeking an abortion. Her bill also would change the process for a minor seeking a judge's permission to bypass parental consent requirements.

Missouri requires a minor seeking an abortion to obtain the written permission of one parent or guardian. Anderson's bill would require the written consent to be notarized and kept on file in the abortion doctor's office for at least seven years.

Rep. Rick Brattin, a Republican from Harrisonville, said parents already oversee their children's other medical procedures.

Other supporters said the bill would make it harder for sex traffickers posing as parents to force abortions on their victims.

Abortion-rights advocates called the provision redundant and, for families who can't locate documents such as a birth certificate, a potentially insurmountable hurtle.

M'Evie Mead, director of statewide organizing for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Missouri, said the steep penalties for performing an abortion on a minor without parental consent already force doctors to carefully vet consent forms.

Other opponents of the bill claimed it would put an undue burden on minors who can't get a guardian's permission.

Under the current law, a minor can ask a judge to excuse her from parental consent requirements by ruling she is "of sound mind and has sufficient intellectual capacity to consent to the abortion."

Anderson's bill would require a minor to seek that permission from a court in her home county. The judge then would schedule a conference with the minor and the abortion doctor. After that, the minor could then continue seeking permission to bypass parental consent; if she doesn't continue with her petition, the court would notify her parents or guardian.

Before issuing a ruling, the bill also would allow a judge to require the girl to complete an evaluation and counseling session with a mental-health professional, who would submit his or her findings to the court.

The privacy violations in this bill are "too numerous to count," said Sarah Rossi, the director of advocacy and policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. The proposed process is so complicated, she said, even an adult would likely need an attorney to navigate it.

Samuel Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri and a supporter of the bill, said the proposed court process would allow the teenager access to abortion alternatives near her home, where she might be more likely to consider them.

"To talk about judicial bypass (of parental consent) and how this is just an inconvenience -- we're talking about the life of a child," Anderson said.

Missouri's only abortion provider is in St. Louis.