(LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider a challenge that could revive Montana’s parental consent requirement for underage abortions, citing procedural issues with how the case was put to the court.

The Washington Examiner reported that for more than a decade Montana has been unable to enforce a law requiring minors to have notarized parental consent before having abortions, thanks to legal challenges from Planned Parenthood. The Montana Supreme Court ruled against the law last year on privacy grounds, prompting Republican state Attorney General Austin Knudsen to submit the matter to the nation’s highest court, asserting a “fundamental right” of parents to direct their children’s health care is at stake.

However, the Supreme Court’s July 3 order list confirmed the Court’s rejection of the appeal without official explanation. However, conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito took it upon themselves to sign their own statement pointing out that Montana “cited a decision of this Court on the rights of parents as support for its argument based on state law, but it did not expressly argue that a holding against it on the state constitutional question would infringe the federal constitutional rights of parents. Ibid. Similarly, the Supreme Court of Montana, while citing our decision in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U. S. 57 (2000), did not expressly hold that the rights of minors under Montana law took precedence over the federal constitutional rights of parents.”

“(B)ecause of the way this case was litigated below, it provides a poor vehicle for deciding” the fundamental question of parental rights, they said. “It is therefore especially important that the denial of review is not read by interested parties or other courts as a rejection of the argument that the petition asks us to decide.” Their statement leaves open a path for Montana to try again in a future appeal.

The Montana Supreme Court has also blocked bans on abortion past 20 weeks and dispensing abortion pills via webcam, and a requirement for ultrasounds and 24-hour waiting periods, citing a pro-abortion amendment added to the state constitution last year.

Though commonly opposed by the abortion industry and its activist allies, parental involvement rules for underage abortions stop the practice from being used by sexual abusers to cover up and continue their crimes, as is often the case – sometimes with the knowledge and cooperation of Planned Parenthood staffers, as established by undercover investigations by the pro-life group Live Action.