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Senate Considers Bill Criminalizing Transportation of Minor Girls Across State Borders For Abortion

By Hilary White 

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Senate will vote on July 25 on a bill that seeks to make it a federal offence to take an underage girl over state lines to procure an abortion without parental consent. The House of Representativs passed a version of the bill in April of 2005 in a 270-157 vote.

Nevada Senator John Ensign is sponsoring the Senate version of the bill, which has a broad base of support from Senate Republicans.

“Most Americans, even those who consider themselves pro-choice, believe there should be at least some restrictions on abortion,” Ensign said.  
“Our kids are not even allowed to get an aspirin in school without parental consent,” the Nevada Republican said. “Yet, remarkably, it is not against the law to evade parental consent or notice requirements to take a child across state lines to get a surgical procedure.”

More than half of the states have parental notification or parental consent laws in effect. However, these laws are often circumvented when minors are transported to other states that do not have parental notification requirements, often under pressure from older boyfriends or at the urging of abortion providers. 

The proposed legislation would not penalize the girl or her parents and provides an exception clause for those who help a girl get an abortion for “life-threatening” conditions. The bill proposes fines and up to one year in prison for violators.
 
In most jurisdictions in the US an underage girl can be taken across state lines to abort her child without parental consent. Abortion activists and feminists have vigorously opposed laws at the state level that they say would “criminalize” well-meaning friends.
 
Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a vocal and long-time Democrat abortion promoter, is heading opposition to the bill. She said from the floor, “Instead of doing something to improve the health of women and girls, the Republican leadership is spending precious time on a bill that protects incest predators, throws grandmothers in jail, and violates our Constitution.”
 
The bill’s sponsors, however, say that its purpose is to curtail the widespread practice of adult men sexually abusing underage girls and using lax abortion laws and the knowing collusion of the abortion industry to cover up their crimes.
 
Four years ago, a Texas-based research organization, Life Dynamics Inc. conducted an investigation in which they revealed that among girls under 15 who get pregnant, between 60 to 80 percent are impregnated by adult men.
 
The investigation exposed the partnership between the men abusing girls and Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation. LDI President Mark Crutcher said, “The American abortion industry has chosen to become paid accomplices of the pedophiles and sexual deviants who target underage girls.”
 
LDI’s findings from government sources, medical journals and independent researchers showed that pro-abortion organizations consistently fail to adhere to state and federal laws concerning reporting child sexual abuse and statutory rape.
 
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Abortion Restrictions Improve as US House Approves Bill Banning Transportation of Minor Girls Across State Borders
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05042801.html

Exposé Links Abortion Industry with Sex Abuse Crimes
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/may/02052101.html

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