Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on whether minors can get an abortion without parental consent.
Last summer, Montana’s top court ruled that minors’ right to privacy under the state Constitution outweighed a parent’s right to make medical decisions for them.
The case comes from a state law passed over a decade ago that said parents had to sign off before a minor could receive an abortion.
Planned Parenthood of Montana sued, but the case went dormant for years. Attorney General Knudsen then took the case to the Montana Supreme Court, trying to enact the law.
Knudsen is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Montana decision. He argues it violates the federal Constitution’s "due process" clause.
Constance Van Kley with the University of Montana Law School says it’s unlikely the Court will take up this question. That’s because lower federal courts haven’t heard this case or similar ones on parental rights.
“Far and away the most common is, there is a split between lower jurisdictions on the issue such that there is a need for the Supreme Court to step and provide a universal rule so that we don’t have a sort of patchwork," Van Kley says.
She adds that the U.S. Supreme Court has been wary of special protections like the one Knudsen is asking for. Van Kley says that’s one of the main reasons the Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
