AP: Bill Criminalizing Minor Abortions OK'd

[Eugene]

Associated Press
Bill Criminalizing Minor Abortions OK'd
By JIM ABRAMS , 09.26.2006, 08:09 PM

Accompanying a minor across a state line to obtain an abortion and
avoid parental notification in the girl's home state would become a
federal crime under a bill the House passed Tuesday.

Republican supporters said the 264-153 vote confirmed public sentiment
that parental involvement superseded a minor's right to have an abortion.
Democratic opponents foresaw the arrests of grandmothers and religious
counselors trying to shield girls from abusive parents.

Chances are slim that the House and the Senate, which approved a more
limited version of the bill in July, will devise a compromise they can
send to the president before the end of this session of Congress.

But the House vote gives House conservatives something to showcase
when they return home next week to campaign for the midterm elections.
The interstate abortion bill, long a priority of anti-abortion groups,
joined limits on stem cell research among the top items on conservative
agendas this year.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/09/26/ap3047354.html

[KingFlorez]

1. Stupid, stupid bill

They don't even take in account issues of incest and possible issues of safety if the minor has abusive parents.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Yup.

Force minors to have children. That'll learn 'em.

Just when you think the repukes can't get any sicker, they go and get sicker. Impressive.

[Yupster]

18. This is notification not consent

or am I not reading far enough?

[Up2Late]

3. I wonder if we could fast track this to the SCOTUS...?

...so that it can be laughed out of court more quickly.

These bastards have done absolutely NOTHING useful this term.

[tritsofme]

5. On its face the law seems constitutional

Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce and the Court has given much broader leeway to Congress in the past over commerce issues.

A horrible law, but I don't know what it would get thrown out on.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. It seems to me the civil rights issue would supersede the commerce

issue.

[tritsofme]

21. I don't know

The Courts let Congress jump pretty far when they act under the Commerce Clause, and this almost seems like a legitimate use of commerce power.

[Yupster]

20. As a parent I would think

it would already be illegal for an adult to take my minor child to another state without my knowledge. Kidnapping?

I can't imagine my kid not coming home from school one day and having no idea where she is only to find out later that someone decided to take her on a trip to another state for a few days without telling me or my spouse. We'd go insane checking the hospitals, the morgues and harrassing the police to be on full Amber Alert mode.

Why would anyone think it's okay to take someone else's kid on a trip without telling his/her parents? That just seems insane to me regardless of the purpose of the trip.

[cap]

22. it is a perfectly sane thing to do when you do not have good

relationship with your parent. Sex is especially hard to discuss in many families. Never mind abuse. I worked for Planned Parenthood and there are more families that have these problems than what you can imagine.

Does your daughter really tell you how far she goes with her boyfriend? Where she lets him touch her each and every time they go on a date. Not many girls discuss the details with their best girlfriends never mind the parent.

On some level, I can feel that this is a very private subject. I can see many girls feeling more comfortable talking to a school nurse or doctor than to their own parent, because the professionals are trained to deal with communicating factual information about intimate areas of the body.

Think of all the happy fun fundie families. Do you think they talk about this openly? How many of those dads take their teen age boys to gentlemen's clubs? Do you think these Dads really have open and frank talks. Now I guess the Dads will tell their boys that they should abandon the girl and not take her across a state line to a abort a pregnancy that the boy created.

I think the number of families that actually have an honest discussion are relatively few and more concentrated in urban areas.

This is a travesty.... Now, if a boy gets a girl in the family way, he cant drive across a state line to get an abortion. He abandons her.

At the end of the day, I would rather my daughter has an abortion without telling me if our relationship was poor. At the end of the day, it is HER body and HER future. When she is old enough to get pregnant I would make sure she would know where to get an abortion safely and tell her how to put it on the insurance or just send the bill and I would pay it. It wouldnt make my day but I would not want her or anyone else going to jail for it. If she disappeared for a few days I would go out of my mind with grief and anxiety until she came back. I would also seek family counseling because I would feel that our family failed to function as a family.

[Yupster]

27. That's all fine and swell, but

minor children can't disappear for days at a time without their parents knowing where they are.

That's insane.

You would be going nuts checking morgues and hostpitals just like I would.

[cap]

30. I'd be happier going nuts for several days than dealing with the years of

all the consequences that would happen if my child did not make the choice that was right for her.

I DO NOT OWN MY CHILD... I am responsible for her; but she is not my chattel.

[SharonAnn]

28. Sometimes it's a family member who impregnates the girl and she

doesn't have an environment at home where she feels she can ask for help.

Father?
Brother?
Uncle?
Cousin?
Even grandfather?
Neighbor?

A couple of years ago we had a grandfather kill himself the night before his trial on molesting two of his granddaughters. Evidence was strong and many family members and neighbors were prepared to testify, if asked, about how he had molested them when they were children.

This went on for more than 50 years before he was arrested and indicted.

Gaveme a whole new understanding of what some children live with.

[cap]

31. yup... I heard a lot of these screwed up stories at Planned Parenthood

unfortunately, we have states where a kid cant hop a subway to a clinic and discretely have this procedure done. I think a parent and daughter should talk this over; but if they cant, the daughter should have the ultimate control over her body, her life and her destiny as well as the potential child. Adoption is not always the right answer; abortion sometimes can be. Forced abortion is not a good answer either.


My daughter is not my chattel. She has to live with the consequences.

[Erika]

4. This is so wrong

If a female is able to become pregnant biologically, she can make her own decisions.

We need to throw out all the GOP theocrats who would impose their will on a pregnant female.

[w4rma]

6. More police state BS from the Repukes. (nt)

[NMMNG]

7. Isn't that special?

Let's just make it a requirement for teenaged girls to be potentially subjected to forced pregnancies, verbal/psychological/physical abuse and utter lack of control over their own bodies. :eyes:

[krispos42]

8. It seems to me to be forcing state laws beyond their boundries

I mean, if I go to Amsterdam and smoke myself into a coma, I don't go to jail in the States for purchasing an icontrolled substance. If I go to Mexico at age 19 and drink myself into a coma I don't get busted for underage drinking. If I drive to a neighboring state to pick up a carton of smokes because the tax is less, my home state won't toss me in the lockup.

If the girl drives to a neighboring state to avoid parental notificaiton laws, then she's out of the juristiction of her home state, so the home state just has to suck it up. And since she's not committing a crime by going to the neighboring state for an abortion, I don't see how the companion can be in trouble.

I do support parental-nitification laws for minors because it is a medical procedure, and since the parents are responsible for the child's well-being, they have to know about it.

HOWEVER, before people start throwing bricks at me, I also think that the minor should have the right to confidentially petition a judge for an exception to the law if she feels she is mature enough. Perhaps with testimony from a relative or counsoler, perhaps. I understand that is the law in California, and it sounds pretty damn reasonable to me.

Now I'll just hunker down and put on my helmet...

[Epiphany4z]

10. I think this is

one of those fine line things....I mean as a parent I want to know....as an incest survivor....I know that you simply don't tell anyone until you are ready to and sometimes never so your not going to petition a judge or anyone else in most cases.

So as much as I would want to know I think it is more important for privacy to remain and no parental notification be needed.

[rocktivity]

13. But if you're deemed "not mature enough" to decide to have an abortion

how can you possibly be mature enough NOT to have one?

:shrug:
rocknation

[aquart]

9. So, a man who knocks up his teenage neighbor

is better off killing her and hiding the body than driving her into another state for an abortion?

Clever.

If they make it out, does this mean they can be arrested and extradited to their home states? For obtaining a legal abortion?

Can the teenager be tortured to make her testify against the adult?

Can the adult be tortured to make him confess?

Don't you just love Republican hysteria legislation?

Get government out of my bedroom and back in my bank where it belongs.

[rodeodance]

11. So---now the Repugs can crow about this on the stump!

[noonwitch]

12. It's a new version of the Fugitive Slave Law

It goes to show you that the abortion argument is not really about the individual state's right to decide in the conservative mind, it's about the federal government taking sides.

What if the kid leaves the state by herself to seek an abortion in a state that doesn't have parental consent laws. Let's say that kid stays with a relative who resides in that state, and that relative accompanies her to the abortion clinic for the procedure. Is that adult still going to be charged in the girl's home state, even though he or she never crossed a state line, thus has not violated the letter of the law, but has violated the spirit of that law.

I actually support parental consent laws, in principle. I just think that other family members (aunts, uncles, adult siblings) should be able to sign the consent if the kid is afraid of her parents. But a child should not undergo surgery without a concerned adult's consent.

[DBoon]

14. You beat me to it!

nt

[depakid]

16. How many Dems voted for this?

And people wonder why they've lost 6 straight elections.

[zreosumgame]

17. we have two high-profile examples of why some cannot tell their parents

in the last couple of weeks. one where the 'parents' kidnapped their daughter to force her to have an abortion because (it seems) the father is black. And a mother who forced her duaghter to drink toxic chemicals to try to induce an abortion. Yeah, this bill will help so very much...

[bleedingheart]

19. As a mother, I mourn for the young girls that will die because of this

stupid legislation.

I love my kids, I would die for them...but I am also a realist. Sometimes your children keep things from you even if you beg them to let you know.

I would not want my daughter to risk her life (illegal or home abortion) or take her life because of governmental meddling.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. The first ones to go

will be the daughters and granddaughters of the foolish reps that approved this.

When will they ever learn?

[Megahurtz]

23. Fuck the Psycho-Fundamentalist Forced-Birther ReThuglicans!

Imperialist Thugs!:argh:

I hate them and I hate what this Country has become.:grr:

I hope that everyone rebels against this heinious Bill!

[cap]

24. there is an underground railroad starting up to help girls

if you google around you will find it.

[Megahurtz]

26. Good.

But they better be smart and careful so that the Thugs don't catch up to them.
They need to always be at least one step ahead.

[bamacrat]

29. Thats fucked up.