Alaskan Parental Notification law becomes: 'Toothless'

The Alaska Judiciary is out of control. Judges rule in any manner they want, regardless of the law or precedent. This is apparent when you look at decisions like the one that Judge John Suddock ordered on Monday that effectively reduced the Alaskan Parental Notification law to a procedural step by stripping it of all civil and criminal penalties.

Steven Ertelt of LifeNews.com reports:

Superior Court Judge John Suddock ruled the new parental notification law state voters approved can stand, but he said abortion practitioners should not face prison sentences for failing to comply with it. He also removed a section allowing parents to file a civil lawsuit against abortion practitioners who don’t comply seeking financial damages.

The law calls for a fine of up to $1,000 and imprisonment of up to five years when abortion practitioners keep parents out of their daughter’s abortion.

Judge Suddock also revised the language of the law to weaken the notification element — making it so a “designee” of an abortion practitioner can also notify parents, legal guardians or custodians of a minor girl.

This leaves the voters of Alaska with a lot of questions and few answers. Jim Minnery who is the president Alaska Family Action, the advocacy arm of Alaska Family Council, explains the following:

Where do we go from here? The ruling essentially is a preliminary or temporary injunction or ban of certain provisions of the parental notice law. Now, more than ever, we must continue to mount the strongest legal defense of this law in the coming weeks as evidence is brought before the court.

There are steps we can take to help protect what we worked so hard to gain. The state Department of Law, under the direction of Governor Parnell, bears primary responsibility for defending the law in court against Planned Parenthood’s attacks.

We have already been in communication with the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Attorney General and have urged them to organize the most aggressive legal defense possible.

We also plan on filing an amicus, or “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Alaskans for Parental Rights / Alaska Family Action, in which we outline for the court’s consideration the arguments and factual evidence proving that parental notice is both constitutional and good public policy.

We’ll also be coordinating with other pro-life and pro-family organizations, both state and national, to encourage them to file their own amicus briefs with the court. We must remind Judge Suddock that there is broad support for this law.

Alaskan's need to remember this sort of thing during elections when it is time for JUDICIAL RETENTION. In Alaska we get to vote whether to RETAIN judges or not. It is obvious that for Catholic's and those who are Pro-Life Judge Suddock is another person we must vote NO on.


Links:

Alaska Judge Weakens Parental Notification on Abortion Law
Judge Wrong to Eviscerate Alaska Parental Notification Law

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