Constitutional Issues

             The Jane Hodgson v Minnesota case revolved around a State law whereby
             a woman below 18 could not obtain an abortion until 48 hours after her
             parents had been notified (Legal Information Institute 1990). Exceptions
             were if the woman was a victim of family abuse or neglect; a court of
             competent jurisdiction allowed her to proceed upon presentation of evidence
             that she was "mature and capable of mature consent;" and if the abortion
             was to her best interests. Concerned sectors filed a complaint at the
             District Court that the statute violated the Due Process and Equal
             Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment. The District Court declared the
             statute completely unconstitutional and enjoined that it be so enforced.
             The District Court found that requiring the notification of both
             effects on both the woman and her parents if the latter were divorced or
             separated or the family was dysfunctional. It agreed that the minor could
             bypass the two-parent requirement because of its tediousness and the
             ensuing loss of privacy, and, therefore, did not further the interests of
             the State in protecting the welfare of the woman. It also held that the 48-
             hour delay, in many cases, entailed significant risk involved in the
             securing of an abortion. It ruled that the permission of one parent was
             sufficient to serve the interests of the State in the case of normally
             functioning families, where the decision of one parent would be presumed to
             be in the best interests of the minor and the State would not question the
             decision of that one parent. It also noted that there were thousands of
             dysfunctional families affected by the two-parent requirement, which was an
             "oddity" among state consent provisions.
             The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the District Court's verdict
             affirmed the original State statute. It pointed to three separate but
             constitutional issues on the two-parent requirement and the ...

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Constitutional Issues. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:06, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/201086.html