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."

Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said Saturday that the attorney general's office was "still looking at appropriate next steps for the state, including an appeal."

Thomas Brejcha of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society's Pro-Life Law Center, said he expected Madigan to appeal, if need be, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's a major defeat for the people of Illinois," he said. "This is a defensible, constitutional law."

Currently, 35 states have parental notification or permission laws, and most states enforce them, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

Illinois is the only state in its region that doesn't have such laws, and anti-abortion activists say that enables teens from other states to travel there to receive abortions.

The American Civil Liberties Union says that most teens inform their parents about their abortions anyway and that laws requiring notification leave some girls vulnerable.

"We're very pleased," said Lorie Chaiten of the Illinois chapter of the ACLU. "This should be the end of that law."

Associated Press writer Ashley M. Heher contributed to this report.

Online: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hg5uSUoXqtycXixl4CZ05JIqSgjgD8V500S80