House approves parental notification and consent requirement for minors seeking abortion

The Utah House of Representatives on Jan. 26 passed First Substitute House Bill 85, a measure that strengthens parental involvement in minors' abortion decisions by adding a parental-consent component while retaining judicial-bypass and medical-emergency exceptions. The motion to substitute and the bill as amended passed the House by a vote of 65 yes to 8 no; the measure will be transmitted to the Senate for further consideration.

Supporters said the legislation restores parental responsibility and protects minors. Representative Michael Gibson, the bill sponsor, told colleagues the bill “strengthens up that notification a little bit, but we also add the element of consent,” and said the judicial-bypass and emergency exceptions are preserved. Gibson argued the change is intended to bring “the decision making process ... back into the living room” and to protect what he described as the lives of unborn children and the role of parents.

Opponents warned of legal vulnerability and pressed for clarified protections for minors in foster or other out-of-home circumstances. Representative Litvak offered an amendment to expand judicial-bypass protections to the notification provision and to address abuse-perpetrator scenarios; he cited lower-court rulings and Belotti v. Baird as legal context for why courts have overturned some notification statutes. Litvak said the amendment would reduce the chance the statute is struck down as unconstitutional and would protect minors for whom parental notification could be harmful.

Floor debate focused on the legal interpretation of prior court rulings and on narrow drafting points. Gibson countered that the language in Belotti v. Baird that opponents cited was not controlling for notification and that legislative counsel and the attorney general had assessed the bill as having a low likelihood of being held unconstitutional as drafted. The House voted on divided and substitute motions related to the Litvak amendment and then on the final amended substitute; both the bill and the governing amendment process were carried by the required majorities.

What the bill does and next steps: The enacted first substitute (as adopted on the House floor) adds a parental-consent requirement for minors seeking an abortion while preserving judicial-bypass and medical-emergency exceptions. The House record shows the bill will be sent to the Senate for committee assignment and further consideration. No Senate action had occurred during this session.

The vote tally was 65 yes, 8 no. The House did not record on the floor a roll-call list of individual votes in the transcript excerpt provided; the final outcome was announced by the Speaker. The next procedural step is Senate consideration and committee referral.