Senate Puts Punishment Before Prevention
Vote exposes political motivation behind Child Custody Protection Act, as anti-choice senators reject realistic ways to prevent teen pregnancy
Washington, DC- Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called the Senate’s passage of the so-called “Child Custody Protection Act,” an irresponsible action that will do nothing to protect young women’s safety or improve family communication. This divisive and controversial legislation would prohibit any one other than a parent- including a grandparent, aunt, adult sibling, or member of the clergy- from accompanying a young woman across state lines for abortion care if the home state’s parental-involvement law has not been met.
“The passage of this bill will have a chilling and dangerous effect on our most vulnerable teens. We all agree that teens in trouble should talk to their parents, and thankfully, most do. However, if they can’t, for whatever reason, we want them to be safe,” Keenan said. “This bill will serve only to isolate young women looking for help. The American public wants teen pregnancy prevented, not punished.”
Keenan also noted that anti-choice senators’ votes against an amendment that would help prevent teen pregnancy exposes the true political motivations behind this bill, which, like the gay-marriage ban, has been on the right-wing’s “to-do list” for some time now.
Anti-choice senators defeated an amendment offered by Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, both Democrats from New Jersey, that would have funded programs to prevent teen pregnancy and help parents talk to their kids about tough topics like sex.
“Tonight’s vote shows that Senators Frist and Ensign, in collusion with their anti-choice colleagues, are not interested in preventing teen pregnancy or protecting young women in difficult circumstances,” Keenan said. “That’s the only reason they could reject more funding for teen-pregnancy prevention programs. Voters this November will remember which senators stood up for commonsense and which ones caved to the extreme far-right anti-choice pressure groups.”
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