As usual, Frist is meddling with the business of women and girls. We think he wants to be one. Or maybe Frist and his band of angry hormonal Republicans have such lousy family relationships that they think forcing teens to talk to their parents is the only way it will happen.
As threatened, Billie Frist will hold a senate vote today on the Child Custody Protection Act, aka the Teen Endangerment Act. If the Teen Endangerment Act passes, it will be a federal crime for someone other than a parent to accompany a teen, in search of an abortion, across a state border - unless the teen has complied with onerous state parental-involvement laws.
The father who rapes his daughter will be legally entitled. For some reason, Frist doesn't get, or care, that asking the man who raped you for permission to do anything can be dangerous to a girl's health and life.
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, has the details:
[Today] the Senate will vote on a dangerous and divisive proposal backed by Sen. Bill Frist that would do nothing to protect our young people or promote conversation between teens and their parents. Known as the Child Custody Protection Act , the bill would prohibit anyone other than a parent—including a grandparent, aunt, adult sibling, or member of the clergy—from accompanying a young woman across state lines for an abortion if the home state's parental-involvement law has not been met.
The tragic story of 13-year-old Spring Adams in Idaho illustrates how CCPA could jeopardize young women's safety. Spring was shot to death by her father after he learned she was planning to terminate a pregnancy caused by his incest. If CCPA passes, trusted, caring and responsible adults would be faced with the threat of prosecution for responding to a young woman like Spring who approaches them because she fears involving her parent in her request for an abortion.
In one study, 93 percent of minors who did not involve a parent in their decision to obtain an abortion were still accompanied by someone to the doctor's office. Although legal abortion is very safe, it is typically advisable that any kind of medical patient have accompaniment, even for minor surgery. But the CCPA would force some minors to drive themselves to out-of-state clinics, without the help of trusted adults or friends.
This, along with concerns for doctor-patient confidentiality, is precisely why leading medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, advise against parental-involvement mandates.
The United States, where 866,000 teenagers become pregnant each year, has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and teen births in the Western industrialized world.
Read the whole thing
Help Stop Frist's Latest Anti-Choice Bill
Nancy Keenan is president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. She may be reached at nancyk@prochoiceamerica.org. You may find additional information on this topic and others related to reproductive rights at http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/.
Politics Abortion Frist Teen Endangerment Act Feminism Reproductive Rights Pro Choice Roe v. Wade
