Pro-life measures promoted in Congress

By Tom Strode - Mar 31, 2005 - comment

Efforts to enact pro-life legislation continue in Congress.

In recent developments:

  • The RU 486 Suspension and Review Act, S. 511 and H.R. 1079, has been introduced. It would halt sale of the abortion drug while the U.S. comptroller general reviews the process by which the Food and Drug Administration approved it.
  • A Pennsylvania mother told a congressional committee March 3 proposed legislation may have protected her teen-aged daughter from a coerced abortion. Testifying to the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, Marcia Carroll of Lancaster, Pa., said her daughter, who was pregnant at 14 years of age, decided to give birth to her baby when her boyfriend’s parents intervened, Associated Press reported. They took the teen-ager to a New Jersey abortion clinic and refused to return her to her home until she had an abortion, Carroll testified. The trip to another state avoided Pennsylvania’s parental notification law. “No one should be able to circumvent state laws by performing an abortion in another state on a minor daughter without parental consent,” Carroll said, AP reported. The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, H.R. 748, would outlaw the transportation of a minor by a non-parental adult to another state for an abortion when the girl’s home state requires parental notification or consent. In the Senate, the bill is the Child Custody Protection Act, S. 403.
  • The Human Cloning Prohibition Act, which would ban cloning for both reproductive and research purposes, has been reintroduced. In two previous Congresses, the House has approved the bill without the Senate acting on it. It is H.R. 1357 in the House.
  • The Prenatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act has been introduced. The bill would serve to increase the likelihood a woman whose unborn child tests positive for Down syndrome or another condition would receive the latest information on the development and treatment options for such a child. It is S. 609 in the Senate.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Cloning, Citizenship, Legislation

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