Aurora seeking to press state

The full Aurora City Council is expected to vote next week on a resolution urging the state to enforce its parental notification law for minors seeking abortions.

The government operations committee on Tuesday forwarded the resolution with no recommendation.

It next will go before the committee of the whole at 5 p.m. Tuesday at city hall.

The statement is a first step, aldermen Richard Irvin and Chris Beykirch said.

They, along with Alderman Rick Lawrence, who missed Tuesday's meeting, still plan on proposing a city ordinance that requires doctors to notify a parent at least 48 hours in advance of any medical procedure done on a minor.

With exceptions, they want parental notice for any treatment, including prescribing medicine.

In the past, they have emphasized they aren't targeting abortions.

But, it is presumed, their resolution urging the state will.

It calls for the state to enforce its parental notice law for minors seeking abortions, which first was approved in 1995.

A federal court has blocked the law from taking effect. A judge is reviewing the case.

Beykirch told committee members the resolution "in no way engenders you to support a parental notification ordinance."

"We'd just like to get a letter to the (state)," he said. "We're not proposing an ordinance (yet)."

But a one-word revision essentially changed the scope of the resolution -- from first calling on the state to enforce notification for "any medical treatment" to "said medical treatment" -- meaning for abortions.

The change was made because the state's law only encompasses abortions. But it also seems to contradict what aldermen have said -- that abortions aren't being singled out.

This, among other things, angered some abortion rights supporters at the meeting.

"They're afraid to say the word abortion," Bonnie Grabenhofer said. "They didn't talk about how this would affect young women. The discussion was only about a technicality. It was the men talking about making a decision about women's lives."

Afterward, Irvin said they are simply "putting in place the mechanisms" for a broader, more inclusive proposal that will include all medical procedures.

"We're not going to stop (at a resolution)," he said.