Dear Member of Congress:
In order to protect the well-being of minor girls
and the rights of their parents, the National Right
to Life Committee (NRLC) urges you to support the
substitute amendment that will be offered to the
Senate-passed Child Custody Protection Act (S. 403)
on Tuesday, September 26.
NRLC expects to include the roll call
on the substitute amendment to S. 403 in its
scorecard of key right-to-life votes for the
109th Congress.
PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR PARENTAL
INVOLVEMENT LAWS
Parental notification or parental
consent laws, consistent with existing Supreme Court
case law, are in effect in more than half the
states. However, these laws are often circumvented
-- activity that is actively encouraged by abortion
clinics' out-of-state advertising in
non-notification states, highlighting the avoidance
of parental notification as a selling point.
Parental notification and parental
consent laws are supported by overwhelming
majorities of the public. For example, in April
2005, The Polling Company asked a national sample,
"Do you agree or disagree that a person should be
able to take a minor girl across state lines to
obtain an abortion without her parents’ knowledge?
And would you say you STRONGLY agree/disagree or
SOMEWHAT agree/disagree?” Of the 1,000 adults
sampled, 15% agreed (7% strongly), while 82%
disagreed (75% strongly). In a July 2005 CBS News
poll, respondents were asked, “Would you favor or
oppose requiring that at least one parent be told
before a girl under 18 years of age could have an
abortion?” In favor were 80%, while 17% were
opposed. To see additional polls on the subject,
click
here.
THE SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT
The substitute includes all of the
provisions of the Senate-passed bill. The central
provision is a prohibition on transporting a minor
across state lines to obtain an abortion if this
abridges her parents' right to be involved under
their home-state law. Also included is the only
amendment adopted by the Senate, the Boxer-Ensign
Amendment, which makes it a separate offense for a
parent who impregnates a minor daughter to take that
daughter to another state for an abortion, and bars
the incestuous parent from employing the right to
sue under the anti-transportation provision.
The substitute also contains the
central provision of the Child Interstate Abortion
Notification Act (CIANA, H.R. 748), which the House
passed on April 27, 2005, with the support of 270
members. This provision requires an abortionist,
before performing an abortion on a minor from a
different state, to notify one parent in the home
state, with certain exceptions that are summarized
below.
We emphasize that, like the original
Senate and House bills, the substitute does not
change or override STATE parental notification or
consent laws. The bill will have no effect whatever
on abortions that are performed on minors who are
residents of the same state in which the abortion is
requested or performed. The provisions of the bill
apply only to cases in which a minor crosses a state
line and seeks an abortion from a provider in a
different state. Once this interstate activity has
occurred, the proposed federal law would provide the
most basic level of protection for the minor and her
parents -- notification of at least one parent.
(Many states provide for not merely notification,
but consent.)
EXCEPTIONS TO THE NOTIFICATION
REQUIREMENT
The bill explicitly provides that the
federal notification requirement would not apply if:
-- the minor is accompanied by a
parent, or
-- the abortionist is already
required to notify a parent under his own state's
law, and he complies with that requirement; or
-- the minor has already received
authorization from a judge in her home state
("judicial bypass"), where the home-state law
provides for such judicial authorization; or
-- the minor declares that she is the
victim of "sexual abuse, neglect, or physical abuse
by a parent," in which case the abortionist will not
notify a parent, but will instead notify the
appropriate state agency in the home state; or
-- in bona fide medical emergencies
in which there is not time to fulfill the
notification requirement before performing the
abortion, in which case the notification will occur
after the fact. Only the parent is likely to know
the child's full medical history, and it is likely
to be a parent who must recognize and respond to an
infection or other complications of an abortion --
complications that a parent might well overlook if
he or she does not even know that an abortion has
occurred.
Thank you for your consideration of NRLC's position
on this important legislation. For additional
information regarding parental notification for
abortion, including the results of other public
opinion polls on this issue, please click
here,
reply to this e-mail, or call the NRLC Federal
Legislation Department at 202-626-8820.
Sincerely,
Douglas Johnson
NRLC Legislative Director
To return to the main Parental Notification page,
please click here.
