WASHINGTON (ABP) — Abortion-rights opponents are pushing hard for the Senate to pass a bill that would penalize those who help teenage girls seeking out-of-state abortions to avoid parental notification laws in their home states.
Late Sept. 28, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) filed a motion for “cloture” — to close debate and force a vote — on the latest version of S. 403, the “Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act.”
The bill would impose fines, incarceration or both on adults who transport the minors, and abortion providers who perform the procedures, if the required notification is not given. Pro-life groups insist that the bill is necessary to protect parental rights for teens from states where their parents must be notified before they can undergo abortion procedures.
Pro-life groups have pressured Frist to force a Senate vote on the bill before Congress adjourns Sept. 29. The cloture vote would force opponents of the bill either to mount enough votes to defeat the latest version outright or to gather 41 senators to filibuster it, preventing a vote on the bill itself.
“Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and your senators need to hear from you today. The fate of the most important pro-life and pro-family bill of this Congress may depend on it,” read the opening lines of a Sept. 27 e-mail to supporters of the conservative Family Research Council.
The Senate has already passed another version of the bill, but it is not as strict as a version the House has passed multiple times.
Democratic leaders in the Senate reportedly prevented a House-Senate conference committee, which normally would reconcile such differences, from moving forward on the legislation. They feared that Republican appointees on the committee would include the House's more restrictive measures in the version that emerged. President Bush would almost certainly sign it into law.
In response, the House passed an amended version of the Senate bill Sept. 26 that included several provisions to which senators object. Among those are a measure that would require parents of minors transported across state lines to be notified 24 hours ahead of time before any abortion — even if neither the child's home state nor the state to which the child was transported requires parental notification.
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. In press statements and advocacy materials, abortion-rights groups have referred to the bill as the “Teen Endangerment Act.”
Pro-choice groups denounced Frist's move to bring the bill to the Senate floor with the House provisions without first taking it through the chamber's committee-hearing process.
“Frist is once again demonstrating to what lengths he will go to make the extreme right-wing base happy — even if it means jeopardizing young women's safety,” said a Sept. 28 statement from Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Frist wants to throw out the rule book to push this divisive and dangerous measure through the Senate. That means no hearings or opportunities for other senators to offer amendments or engage in the kind of thoughtful debate that Americans expect and deserve.”
But abortion-rights opponents said the bill is only reasonable, and they blamed Democrats for blocking action on the earlier bills. If the latest version does not pass the Senate, it is virtually certain that it will die when the 109th Congress is replaced after November's midterm elections.
The bill “is necessary to protect parents' rights and the health of minors who may be seeking abortion. Parental notification laws are supported by 80 percent of Americans,” said the Family Research Council action alert. “Before Congress heads home, they must protect our homes from the ruthless and deceptive practices of the abortion industry.”
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Read more:
Text of “Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act”
Senate votes to limit abortion options for teens in parental-consent states” (7/26)
“House passes measure designed to limit teenage abortions” (4/28/2005)