This is a press release issued by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in
Washington, D.C., on Saturday, September 30, 2006. For further
information, contact NRLC at 202-626-8820 or by e-mail at
Legfederal@aol.com. Please forward this e-mail to any
appropriate lists.
Eight
Senate Democrats Flip, Kill
Parental Notification Bill (Child Custody Protection Act)
WASHINGTON -- A bill to generally require notification of one parent before a
minor obtains an out-of-state abortion died Friday when Senate Democrats voted
overwhelmingly to block it.
Hours before Congress adjourned for pre-election campaigning, 57 senators voted
to remove the final procedural obstacle to S. 403, which would have cleared the
bill for transmission to President Bush for his signature. But 57 was
three votes short of the 60 required under Senate rules to break through a
procedural roadblock erected by the Senate Democratic leadership.
The Senate
Democratic leadership had been
obstructing the progress of the legislation for
months. This week, pro-life Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tn.) made
a bold attempt to overcome the minority's obstructionism by forcing the decisive
cloture vote.
The cloture motion was supported by 51 of the chamber's 55 Republicans (93%),
but by only six of the 45 members of the Democratic caucus (13%). The
complete roll call can be viewed
here.
The bill, S. 403, the Child Custody Protection Act, as it initially passed the
Senate on July 25 by a vote of
65-34, would have prohibited transporting
a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion, if this abridged the parents'
right to be notified under the home-state law. However, the Senate
Democratic leadership subsequently raised unusual procedural barriers that
prevented the bill from going to a House-Senate conference committee. On
September 26, the House took up the Senate-passed bill, added a provision to
require an abortionist in any state to notify one parent before performing an
abortion on a minor from another state (with certain exceptions), and sent the
bill back to the Senate by a vote of 264-153
(under the title "Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act," or CIANA).
It was this amended bill that the Senate voted on last night.
Of the 14 Democrats who initially voted in favor of S. 403 on July 25, yesterday
eight flipped and voted to kill the parental notification requirement: Ken
Salazar (Co.), Tom Carper (De.), Bill Nelson (Fl.), Daniel Inouye (Hi.),
Evan Bayh (In.), Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan (both ND), and Herb Kohl (Wi).
The six
Democrats who voted in favor of the bill on both occasions were Mark Pryor
(Ar.), Ben Nelson (Ne.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Harry Reid (Nv.), Tim Johnson
(SD), and Robert Byrd (WV). The four Republicans who opposed the bill were
Lincoln Chafee (RI), Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (both Maine), and Arlen
Specter (Pa.).
"It
is remarkable that only six out of 45 Senate Democrats voted to require a parent
to be notified before an abortion is performed on a young daughter in some other
state," commented NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, who noted that the
bill had exceptions for cases involving abuse, medical emergency, and judicial
waiver of notification. "We commend Majority Leader Bill Frist for
fighting to the end to free this legislation from the grip of a Senate minority,
a minority that has preserved the ability of profiteering abortionists to keep
parents in the dark."
The chief
sponsors of the legislation are Sen. John Ensign (R-Nv.) and Congresswoman
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl.).
To view a
letter from NRLC to the Senate that explains the provisions of the bill in
detail, click
here.
For other
information on the legislation, including the full text (PDF format), summaries
of state parental notification and consent laws, and other resources, click
here.
To view
NRLC's scorecard of all key pro-life roll calls in the Senate during the current
Congress, click
here.
To view
NRLC's scorecard of all key pro-life roll calls in the House of Representatives
during the current Congress, click
here.
