Editorial, Opinion Pieces Respond To Bill That Would Criminalize Assisting Minors To Circumvent State Parental Notification Laws

An editorial, opinion piece and letter to the editor respond to a bill (S 403) that would allow federal charges to be filed against any individual who transports minors across state lines for the purpose of evading state abortion parental notification or consent laws. The Senate last week voted 65-34 to approve the bill, which was sponsored by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). Under the bill, people who violate the measure would be subject to a fine or up to one year in prison. The measure includes an exception if an abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant minor. In addition, the bill would bar a father who rapes his daughter from suing anyone who assists in her abortion, as well as bars anyone committing incest on a minor from transporting a minor to another state to obtain an abortion (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/26). Summaries appear below.

Editorial

• Boston Globe: If supporters of the Senate bill "truly wanted to reduce the incidence of abortion, they would focus on reducing unwanted pregnancy, but many of the same senators" who voted for the bill "defeated funding for increased pregnancy prevention grants," a Globe editorial says. "Criminalizing the act of driving minors to abortion clinics in other states won't do anything to reduce teen pregnancy, but it could drive teen abortion underground, making it unsafe, as well as illegal," the editorial says. Supporters of the bill "claim to care about traumatized girls being pressured into having abortions, but this bill would press them into lives of ... despair," the editorial says (Boston Globe, 7/29).

Opinion Piece

• Judith Warner, New York Times: "[R]adical Republicans ... have cleverly linked [the Senate bill] to one of the most basic beliefs of mainstream parenting today: namely, that parents have a right to know everything about their children and to control every aspect of their lives," Warner, author of "Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety," writes in a Times opinion piece. "It is not unreasonable for parents to want to know what's going on with their kids," Warner writes, adding, "I would just suggest that parental rights have limits." She adds that to deny girls seeking abortions "access to freedom from forced pregnancy ... is to abuse them" (Warner, New York Times, 7/29).

Letter to the Editor

• Carol Roye, New York Times: "[T]he senators who voted for [the Senate bill] got it wrong," Clark, professor of nursing at Hunter College Schools of the Health Professions, writes in a Times letter to the editor, adding, "If teenagers do not tell their parents" they plan to undergo the procedure, "there is usually a good reason." She concludes, if this bill is signed into law, "[w]ho will protect those teenagers who stand to be abused if they reveal the pregnancy to their parents?" (Roye, New York Times, 7/30).

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