Interstate abortion bill nears passage

[tocqueville]

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
21 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - Taking a teenager across state lines to get an abortion without a parent's knowledge would become a crime punishable by prison under a bill that headed toward Senate passage Tuesday.

Struggling to defend their majority this election year, Republican sponsors said the bill supports what a majority of the public believes: that a parent's right to know takes precedence over a young woman's right to have an abortion.

"No parent wants anyone to take their children across state lines or even across the street without their permission," said Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "This is a fundamental right, and the Congress is right to uphold it in law."

Bowing to public support for parental notification and the GOP's 55-44-1 majority, Democrats spent the day trying to carve out an exemption for confidants to whom a girl with abusive parents might turn for help. They complained that the measure is the latest in a series of bills designed chiefly to energize the party's base of conservative voters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_go_co/interstate_abortion_6

[Ilsa]

1. What about amendments for grandparents? Did that make it into

the legislation? NARAL was calling this the Grandmother Inceration Act.

[bluestateguy]

2. Big government conservatives

When was the last time a Republican Administration actually gave us a small government?

[flpoljunkie]

3. The GOP sponsor of this unnecessary bill is Ensign R-NV, being challenged

in November by President Carter's son Jack who is considered an underdog to the less than stellar Senator Ensign. Let's hope the wave building for the Democrats in November will sweep in Jack Carter and rid us of John "Good Hair" Ensign.

Edited to add: http://www.carterfornevada.com

[partylessinOhio]

4. Why does abortion trump the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq & Lebanon?

...gas prices, loss of jobs, affordable health care, the energy crisis, infrastructure ...

[SoCalDem]

5. "teenaged"?? what does the bill use as the cut-off age?

Teenaged could mean 13 or it could mean 17.. At 18, the "teen" would be legal , or are they trying to change that too?

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Great. More laws we really, really, really don't need.

Ugh.

[KamaAina]

7. Call it the "Maximizing Unwed Teenage Mothers Act of 2006"

Truth in advertising, y'know. Maybe that'd get it through the repukes' thick skulls... naaah. :puke:

[KamaAina]

8. What about people who just happen to live near a state line?

where the nearest clinic happens to be on the other side. A prime example would be northern Mississippi; as we all know by now, the only clinic in the whole state is in Jackson, and is presently under siege by wingnuts. So a young woman living in, say, Oxford couldn't go up to Memphis?!

Typical repukes. Dumb and dumberer. :grr:

[Iris]

9. Proponents of this bill claim this is to protect teenagers from

older men who get them pregnant and then help them get abortions.

But what if the boyfriend is in 11th grade, too? and has a car.

[B Calm]

10. The world is on the brink of WW3 and cons are worried about wedge

issues....

[Zhade]

11. kick against fascism

rec, too