House passes bill protecting parents rights on abortion

WASHINGTON (BP)–The U.S. House of Representatives easily approved a bill to prevent interstate abortions on minors without parental notice April 27.

The House voted 270-157 for the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which would outlaw the transportation of a minor by a non-parent or non-guardian to another state for an abortion when the girl’s home state requires parental notification or consent.

More than one-fourth of House Democrats joined most of the Republicans to pass H.R. 748. Among Democrats, 54 voted for the bill, while 145 opposed it. Only 11 GOP members voted against the measure, while 216 Republicans favored it. The House’s lone independent voted against it.

The legislation is expected to face a more difficult test in the Senate, although pro-lifers made gains in the November election. The House has approved similar legislation three previous times – 1998, 1999 and 2002 – without the Senate ever voting on it. This year’s House action was a 10-vote gain from 2002.

The Senate Republican leadership has made a similar measure, the Child Custody Protection Act, S. 431, one of its top 10 priorities, but Democrats are working to block it. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Ensign, R.-Nev., has 37 co-sponsors, including one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

President Bush has said he will sign the legislation. On the day of the House vote, the White House released a statement endorsing H.R. 748, saying it is “consistent with the administration’s view that parents’ efforts to be involved in their children’s lives should be protected.”

Southern Baptist ethics leader Richard Land said enactment of the bill was “long overdue.”

“This is a victory for unborn babies; it’s a victory for underage mothers, and it’s a victory for parents,” said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “This is one more example of every Congress becoming more pro-life than the last Congress. And this is one of the many evidences we will see that elections do matter.”

The House version has a mandate not included in previous versions. It requires an abortion doctor in a state without a parental notification law to inform a parent before he performs an abortion on a minor girl who lives in a different state. Exceptions exist when the girl has received a judicial bypass in her home state and when she qualifies in cases of abuse or medical emergencies.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R.-Fla., chief House sponsor, called the bill “commonplace and common-sense legislation” in a floor speech before the vote.

“This legislation will put an end to the abortion clinics and family planning organizations that exploit young, vulnerable girls by luring them to recklessly disobey state laws,” she said.

Some opponents of the bill argued girls would obtain unsafe abortions rather than tell their parents or seek a judicial bypass, especially in cases of sexual abuse by a father or step-father.

Twenty-four states have laws in effect that require the notification or consent of at least one parent or a guardian, or authorization by a judge, before a minor can have an abortion, according to the National Right to Life Committee. The House-approved measure does not require any state to adopt a parental involvement law.

Some minors travel from or are transported from states with parental involvement laws to neighboring states that have no such laws in order to undergo abortions. Abortion clinics in states without parental involvement laws sometimes advertise their services in adjacent states that have such laws.

Some studies have shown a majority of minors who become pregnant are impregnated by men 18 or older. The men, or their family members, sometimes take the minors across state lines to obtain abortions. Supporters of the proposals to ban such activities argue these men have an incentive to keep the pregnancy hidden by means of secret abortions, since they are vulnerable to statutory rape charges.