DeLay: Protecting the Rights of Minors and Parents; House Passes Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act
DeLay: Protecting the Rights of Minors and Parents; House Passes Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today said passage of the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act will protect the rights of minors and their parents by closing the loopholes that have allowed circumvention of state parental notification laws. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), passed the House of Representatives today by a bipartisan vote of 270-157, with 54 Democrats voting in favor of the legislation.
"However divided our nation may be on protecting the unborn, we all agree that we cannot overlook the safety of a pregnant girl and the right her parents have to protect her," DeLay said. "And no matter how desperate and scared this young mother may be, we must remember she is still a child herself, and still in need of her own parents and protection."
DeLay is an original cosponsor of the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which makes it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion in an effort to circumvent a state law requiring parental involvement in a minor's abortion decision. In an effort to protect minors, this bill will prevent people, including abusive boyfriends and older men who may have committed rape, from pressuring young girls to avoid parental involvement laws by traveling out-of-state to receive an abortion.
"If we don't allow a school nurse to give a child an aspirin without her parent's consent, how on earth can we allow a stranger to take that same child across state lines for an invasive medical procedure without her parents even knowing about it?" DeLay said. "If we all forget the politics for a second and take a deep breath, we'll see clearly this is just common sense."
The bill also protects the parents' rights by requiring abortion providers in a non-parental-notification state to give one of the minor's parents, or a legal guardian if necessary, 24 hours' notice of the minor's abortion decision before the abortion is performed. Currently 23 states have parental involvement laws.
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