Court reinstates Montana abortion law By Laurie Asseo Associated Press Writer   WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court today reinstated a Montana law that requires unmarried girls to notify a parent or get a judge's approval before undergoing an abortion. The court ruled that the law is valid despite arguments by abortion rights advocates that it does not let judges decide an abortion would be in a girl's best interest. Montana's law says judges can approve an abortion without notifying either parent if a girl shows that such notice is against her best interest. Today's unsigned decision noted that past rulings on parental-notification laws assumed that a judicial finding that parental notice is not in a girl's best interest is the same as finding that abortion without notification is in her best interest. The court's main opinion said the Montana law makes no distinction between the two. In a concurring opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said, ``It is surely appropriate to assume that the Montana provision also requires the court to authorize the minor's consent whenever the abortion is in her best interests.'' Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer joined Stevens' opinion. Montana agreed in 1993 not to enforce its law requiring unmarried girls under 18 to tell a parent before undergoing an abortion, because it did not provide the option of going to court. Two years later, lawmakers enacted a new law that let girls avoid telling a parent by getting a judge's permission instead. A judge could give permission if a girl was mature enough to decide whether to have an abortion, if there was evidence that a parent abused her, or if notifying a parent would not be in her best interest. Eleven other states have parental-notification laws with similar judicial bypass procedures. They are Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio and West Virginia. Some other states require parental consent, most with a judicial bypass based on a showing that an abortion would be in the girl's best interest. A group of doctors challenged Montana's law in federal court. They argued that it often would be easier to prove an abortion would be in a girl's best interest than to show that telling a parent would be against her interest. A federal judge ruled the law unconstitutional, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. The Supreme Court in 1989 upheld an Ohio parental-notification law that required girls seeking a court order to prove parental notification would not be in their interest. The decision treated that language as though it were the same as a requirement to prove that the abortion itself was in the minor's best interest. In the appeal acted on today, Montana lawyers said the 9th Circuit court should have followed court rulings that upheld similar laws in other states. The case is Lambert vs. Wicklund, 96-858.