Use Of Abortion Pill Subject To Texas Parental Notification Law

      AUSTIN, Texas - Texas doctors must notify a minor''s parents before prescribing her RU-486, the abortion pill approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month, according to the state attorney general''s office.

      Attorney General John Cornyn said the drug, which can be used within the first seven weeks of a pregnancy, is subject to the same 10-month-old parental notification law as a surgical abortion.

      That law requires physicians to contact one parent at least 48 hours before performing a surgical abortion on a patient who is 17 or younger. The law also requires at least 48-hours'' notice of one parent before prescribing the abortion pill, Cornyn''s office said.

      Parental consent is not required in either case.

      ``Texas'' parental notification law applies to an attending physician''s act of providing RU-486 to a minor female as a method of terminating her pregnancy,'' Cornyn spokesman Mark Heckmann said.

      Gov. George W. Bush, who criticized the FDA''s decision to legalize the abortion pill, praised the decision.

      ``Governor Bush supports the attorney general''s position because the intent of the parental notification legislation is to reduce the number of abortions in Texas and involve parents in this major decision by their minor daughters,'' said Bush spokeswoman Linda Edwards.

      Kae McDonough of the Texas Abortion Rights Action League agreed that RU-486 is subject to the parental notification law as written.

      But she reiterated her opposition to the law, which she said forces some teen-age girls to seek unsafe abortions instead of telling their parents they are pregnant.

      ``Many young women don''t even go to the clinic. They take things into their own hands,'' McDonough said Tuesday.

      She said access to RU-486 is especially important in Texas, where abortions are not available in 93 percent of counties and some women drive hundreds of miles for the procedure.

      RU-486 was developed by a French doctor and has been available in Europe since 1988.

      It was approved by the FDA on Sept. 28 after a decade of study. It is expected to be available in the United States within the next few weeks. It will likely cost the same as a surgical abortion, about $300.

      Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would require physicians who prescribe the drug to be legally permitted to perform an abortion and have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

      Texas'' parental notification law does not apply to contraception or so-called morning-after pills that prevent pregnancies.

      Cornyn''s opinion on the law is not a legal ruling, which can come only after an official inquiry from a government official.

      Instead, he released the opinion Tuesday in response to an inquiry from The Associated Press, which had earlier reported that a similar law in Virginia also applies to RU-486. Thirty-two states have parental notification laws.

      The Texas law includes an exemption that allows a minor to obtain a court order certifying that she has reason to fear that telling her parents would put her in danger.

      Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who sponsored the law, said she envisioned the approval of RU-486 and wrote the law accordingly.

      ``We made sure that part of the definition specifically said the use of ''any means'' to terminate a pregnancy,'' she said.

     

c. 2000 Cox News Service