[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 85 (Thursday, June 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5389]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CHILD CUSTODY PROTECTION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, the House will soon have the 
opportunity to vote on legislation that will help secure the rights of 
parents to counsel our children during a situation of great confusion 
that could lead to grave consequences, that of obtaining an abortion.
  Almost half the States in the American union have passed laws that 
require the consent or notification of one or both parents before a 
minor girl can obtain an abortion. These laws are designed to assure 
that a mother, father or legal guardian can provide counsel and comfort 
to an innocent and naive young girl before making a decision that 
brings with it mental and physical ramifications.
  Unfortunately, unscrupulous abortionists, while practicing in a State 
without parental notification laws, loudly advertise in another State 
which does have consent laws, that their abortion mill lacks such 
notification requirements. Minor girls are then taken by a stranger, 
oftentimes, to obtain this dangerous procedure.
  This, Mr. Speaker, is an outrage that must be stopped, and can be 
stopped, if Congress adopts the legislation that I have introduced 
along with the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Myrick), who joins 
me here tonight, H.R. 3682, the Child Custody Protection Act. This bill 
would make it a Federal misdemeanor for an adult to knowingly transport 
a minor across State lines in order to evade a State's parental 
notification or consent laws on abortion. This legislation already has 
135 cosponsors, and this number is rising, because it is a common sense 
idea, protecting parental rights from being stripped away by a complete 
stranger.
  Many of our Nation's schools, for example, prohibit giving an aspirin 
to children without parental notification. Yet we have a situation 
where a complete stranger can take a young girl away from her parents 
to obtain an abortion and suffer no consequences, despite this young 
lady having been subjected to a life-threatening procedure.
  President Clinton this week said parents should know when their 
children are being encouraged to smoke by tobacco companies. Well, this 
same principle, the parents right to know, should apply also to a young 
girl obtaining an abortion.
  In July, just in a few weeks, we will have the opportunity here in 
the full House of Representatives to secure the parents right to know, 
to know when our daughters are being taken advantage of by a stranger 
without our consent and without our notification. H.R. 3682 is that 
opportunity, Mr. Speaker, and I hope that all of our colleagues, 
Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, will join in 
protecting parental rights from being stripped away by a stranger.
  We urge our colleagues to support H.R. 3682, the Child Custody 
Protection Act.

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