The Sixth Circuit today declared facially unconstitutional the "single-petition rule" set forth in ORC 2919.121(C) -- enacted by Ohio House Bill 421 in 1998 -- that limits minors seeking a judicial bypass of the statutory parental-consent requirement to one petition per pregnancy.
If a state requires parental consent before an unemancipated minor may undergo an abortion, the Supreme Court requires the state to provide a judicial or administrative procedure so that the minor woman may bypass the consent requirement upon satisfying certain conditions. See Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U.S. 622, 643-51 (1979); Lambert v. Wicklund, 520 U.S. 292, 295 (1997).
In Cincinnati Women's Services v. Taft, Case No. 05-4174, a panel comprised of Circuit Judges Cole, Gibbons and Rogers held that Ohio's "single-petition rule" constitutes an undue burden under the large-fraction test of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 878, 894-95 (1992). But the Court upheld the "in-person rule" requiring women seeking abortions to attend an in-person meeting with a physician, for informed-consent purposes, at least 24 hours prior to receiving the abortion.
Thanks to Howard Bashman's How Appealing for posting on the case here. The State of Ohio's brief in the case can be found here.