New Jersey Legislature Passes 
Parental Notification Amendment

December 21, 2001—Trenton, NJ: A pro-life constitutional amendment to ensure that parents are informed when their minor daughters seek abortions was approved by a wide margin in the New Jersey Assembly yesterday, giving its supporters new hope of seeing it on New Jersey's ballot next fall.

The Assembly's 52-21 vote gave the measure the supermajority vote required by the constitution to put a proposed amendment before the voters at the next election. Elated pro-life advocates immediately called on the Senate to follow suit.

But it was not clear the Senate could or would act on that call.

To get on the ballot, a constitutional amendment must pass both houses by a three-fifths majority, or be passed by simple majorities in two successive legislative years.

The Senate already voted on the amendment this year, approving it last June by a simple majority, 21-15. The Legislature's chief lawyer, Albert Porroni, said yesterday the Senate appeared to be locked into that vote, and any attempt at a second try "would be chancy," likely to be challenged in court.

Its chances of passage in the next Legislature appeared doubtful as well, as pro-abortion Assemblyman Albio Sires (D-Hudson), who will become speaker when Democrats take control of the lower house next month, said he will not be inclined to post the amendment for a vote.

"I'm not comfortable with that bill at all," said Sires, who voted against it yesterday.

The amendment would effectively overturn a decision by the state Supreme Court that struck down an earlier parental notification law. The court ruled, 4-2, that requiring pregnant minors to tell their parents if they plan to abort—but not if they plan to give birth—violates their right to equal protection.

Yesterday marked the second time that Assembly Speaker Jack Collins (R-Salem), who is leaving the Legislature, had asked his colleagues to pass an amendment to undo that decision.

In November 2000, a different amendment passed the Assembly 44-14, four votes short of a supermajority. Some opponents said it was so broadly worded it could require minors going into drug or alcohol treatment to notify their parents.

The Senate then amended the measure to provide for parental notification only for treatment relating to pregnancy. Yesterday, Assemblyman John Rooney (R-Bergen) told his colleagues the Senate had taken away their excuse for opposing it, and it picked up eight additional votes in the lower house.

Speaking before the vote yesterday, Rooney said the decision to have an abortion is not one underage children are equipped to make. "There is nothing that can be done to a minor child save one thing without parental notification," said Rooney, who supported the measure. "That one thing happens to be abortion."

Rooney, from up north in Bergen County, spoke of how the decision to seek an abortion "scars" a minor. "From that point on they live with that," Rooney told the Assembly. "  They need their parents' support."

Nine Democrats joined 43 Republicans in backing the proposal, while all 21 dissenting votes were cast by Democrats.

Assemblywoman Nia Gill (D- Essex) and Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Union) both criticized the bill during floor debate.

Collins argued that the state constitution is "based on the power of the people." By putting the proposal on the ballot, he said, "we're giving the citizens, the real power brokers in this state," the chance to determine whether parents should be told their child is planning an abortion.

Pro-life leaders in New Jersey were delighted by the outcome of the vote.

"We are happy," Marie Tasy of New Jersey Right to Life said yesterday, adding that she believed the measure would gain the approval it needs to go on the ballot. "All political power lies with the people . . . and this clearly brings us closer to allowing the people of New Jersey to decide. It actually deprives opponents of their sole means of overriding the will of the people."

Anne Perrone, the president of the New Jersey Committee for Life, acknowledged "an uphill battle" in the legislature next year. But she said the amendment would merely allow voters to decide whether the Legislature could require parental notification of unmarried girls under 18.

John Tomicki, executive director of the League of American Families, hailed yesterday's vote as "a significant victory for the public, which overwhelmingly supports it." He said he would talk to the proposal's sponsors in the Senate about calling a second vote in that house "as soon as possible" in hopes of getting the three-fifths vote needed to put it on next November's ballot.

But Porroni, the legislature's lawyer, said the state constitution "is pretty explicit" in providing that once an amendment passes by less than three-fifths, the only way to put it on the ballot is to pass it again in the next legislative year.

Stepping momentarily out of yesterday's hectic Senate session, when more than 100 bills were listed for votes, Senate Majority Leader John Bennett (R-Monmouth) could not say whether the upper house would hold a second vote on the parental notification amendment in early January.

"I don't know," Bennett said as he headed back into the chamber. "I'm trying to get through today."