Child Custody Protection Act Faces Conference Roadblock

By Richard Land - Jul 26, 2006 - 1

Dear Friends:

With your help both houses of Congress have passed bills that would make it illegal to take a minor across state lines for an abortion without her parents’ knowledge.

In a move to protect the right of parents to be involved in their pregnant daughter’s decisions, the Senate passed the Child Custody Protection Act (S. 403) by a 65-34 vote on Wednesday. Under S. 403, it would be a federal offense to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion without fulfilling the requirements of the parental notification or consent law in her home state.

Last year, by a 270-157 vote, the House passed the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which contains different but related provisions. Unlike the Senate bill, the House measure sets out a national parental notification law. It would require a physician who performs an abortion on a minor from another state to notify her parent before the procedure.

Passage of these bills marks a great pro-life success, but unfortunately, we aren’t done yet! Immediately following Wednesday’s vote, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist made a routine move to allow appointment of a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bills. Despite support for the Senate bill by fourteen Democratic senators, the Democratic caucus moved to kill the bill. On their behalf, Assistant Minority Leader Dick Durbin objected to the necessary step of sending the bill to conference committee.

If the Democratic opposition does not remove their objection to the appointment of a committee to work out the differences between the House- and Senate-passed bills, our efforts to ensure parents’ involvement in their daughter’s decision to end her pregnancy may be stopped cold. This attempt to infringe on the rights of parents is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.

If you agree with 80 percent of the American public that parents have a right to be involved in their daughter’s decision whether or not to have an abortion, please contact your senators and urge them to stop the Senate Democratic leadership from using procedural tactics to obstruct this crucial legislation. You can reach your senators by dialing the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If you prefer email, just click here and follow the instructions.

Thank you for caring enough to help protect these young girls and to offer greater hope for a full life for the precious unborn lives inside them.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Legislation, National, Social Issues

comments (post your own) feed

1 On Jul 31st, 2006, at 5:34pm, Robert Mason wrote:

First,this bill assumes that all parents are worthy advisors and attacks all those young ladies who don’t have parental counsel as an option.  Nearly one third of young women who do not involve their parents in the decision to get an abortion would face serious consequences if they did, such as violence or being forced to leave home.

Secondly, this law wants to crimminalize being a “Good Samaritan”.  A friend, aunt, uncle, grand parent, pastor, or 21st century “Jesus” would be jailed and or fined for giving a helping hand.
Where is the Gospel of the Good News in this law?

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