It’s for the chillrens reproductive health.

Via KRTV

District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock has ruled that the state cannot defend a law requiring girls under 18 to get permission from their parents before getting abortions, setting the stage for possibly striking it down.

Sherlock did not rule on the substance of the law, passed by the legislature last year, but he said the issue was already decided in a 1999 case and the state cannot re-litigate the same question.

The 2013 measure had the effect of repealing LR-120, approved by Montana voters in 2012, which required parental notification for girls under 16 seeking abortions.

“The laws that were passed, both in the 2012 ballot and the 2013 legislative session really didn’t take into account at-risk teens who needed help and care rather than parental involvement that could put them in danger,” said Stacey Anderson, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Montana, which, along with a doctor, challenged the law. “So when we looked at that an looked at the few cases every year that don’t involve the parents, we really thought they needed protection. And we thought that by using the courts to protect the right of privacy and equal protection.”

Planned Parenthood’s next step will be to ask Sherlock to grant summary judgment on the facts of the case and rule that the decision made in 1999 by then-District Judge Dorothy McCarter still stands.

Anderson said Planned Parenthood’s arguments, as well as the order by Sherlock, do not dismiss the importance of parental involvement in girls’ decisions about abortion.

“All of the patients that we see who are minors, we encourage parental involvement and play a role in helping make those calls or asking teens to bring in their parents and we have a discussion together about their health care decisions,” Anderson said. “That being said, there are a couple of teens in Montana every year who come from really terrible families. They live in really terrible situations, were victims of abuse — you see it on the cover of the newspaper all of the time.”

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox plans to appeal Sherlock’s ruling that the state could cannot litigate the case. If that appeal is successful it would bring the substance of the issue back into Sherlock’s court.

“More than 70 percent of Montana voters have said parents should be involved in their children’s life-changing decisions,” a spokesman said in an email. “Attorney General Fox will continue to defend Montanans’ right to direct democracy through the initiative process by appealing this District Court decision.”

Anderson said she appreciates what those voters thought in the 2012 election, but that they were thinking about their own families.

“They weren’t really thinking about the girl down the street or across town who’s scared,” she said. “And that’s what our job is to do. Those are the girls that we see that come in and we want to make sure we keep them safe.”