GOP Lauds Passage of Parent-Consent Bill

Drawing on the emotional ordeal of a 13-year-old date-rape victim taken across state lines to get an abortion, the GOP used its weekly radio address Saturday to praise the House for passing a bill that would criminalize such behavior.

“Every parent has the right to counsel, to comfort and to protect their children,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said, adding that parents should be the only ones making the decision whether an underage girl should have an abortion.

The House, in a 276-150 vote, last week passed a bill requiring parental consent, but it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a threatened White House veto. On Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee sent an identical bill to the full Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has said he hopes to pass the measure before Congress adjourns in October.

The bill would make it a federal misdemeanor--punishable by fines and a year in jail--for anyone to help or transport a pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion without her parents’ approval.

Although President Clinton has expressed support for the idea behind the legislation, officials say the White House wants exemptions for family members and friends. House Republicans turned aside all amendments to the bill.

Ros-Lehtinen said Republicans were outraged to hear the story of a 13-year-old girl who was reported missing by her mother. But, as it turned out, the girl was the victim of date rape and had been taken out of state for an abortion by the attacker’s mother.

“We are making this a crime because it is unacceptable that any parent in America experience this tragedy,” the congresswoman said. “We must punish those who put our daughters in physical danger simply because they won’t take responsibility for the pregnancies they cause.”