WASHINGTON (ABP) — The House of Representatives passed a bill April 27 designed to limit abortions performed on minors.
The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act passed the chamber on a 270-157 vote. It makes it illegal for adults to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion without informing the girl's parents if the law in the girl's home state requires parental notification.
Currently, 30 states require such notification. It also would force abortion providers to notify parents even in the other 20 states that do not currently require it.
The legislation — labeled the “Teen Endangerment Act” by abortion-rights advocates — is the first bill addressing abortion to gain passage in either chamber so far in the 109th Congress.
The bill requires parents of minors to be notified 24 hours ahead of time before any abortion. And it imposes fines, incarceration or both on the adults who transport the children and the abortion providers who perform the procedures if the required notification is not given.
Abortion foes support the bill as a reasonable way to enforce parental rights. Abortion-rights advocates say the bill endangers the health and well being of teenage girls whose parents may oppose abortion. It contains an exception for situations in which carrying the child to term may endanger the mother's life but no similar exception for the mother's health.
Versions of the bill previously have passed the House, but it has never come up for a vote in the Senate. However, with the largest Republican majority in that chamber since the beginning of President Bush's term, it may have a better chance of passing this time around.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has labeled it a legislative priority for this session of Congress. If it passes and Bush signs it into law, it would be the fifth piece of legislation aimed at reducing the number of abortions to be enacted since the beginning of his presidency.
The House version of the bill is H.R. 748. The Senate version is S. 8.