Right on!

Ill. Abortion Notification Law Blocked

A state law requiring parental notification before a minor can get an abortion will remain on hold, a federal judge ruled, the latest in decades of complex legal wrangling.

Abortion rights groups on Saturday praised the decision, saying it could end chances for the measure to take effect. Proponents of the law said they were disappointed, and the attorney general's spokeswoman said the state would consider an appeal.

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was passed in 1984 and updated in 1995 but never enforced because the Illinois Supreme Court refused to issue rules spelling out how judges should handle appeals of the notification requirement. A federal court held that the law could not take effect without the rules in place. In 2006, the Supreme Court unexpectedly adopted the necessary rules.

In a decision entered Friday, U.S. District Judge David H. Coar rejected a request from Attorney General Lisa Madigan that the federal court dissolve the order that put the law on hold.

Coar said the law still fails to give a teenager workable judicial options to notify her parents, calling parts of the statute "contradictory and incomplete."