House Passes Bill that Allows Politicians to Invade Private Family Matters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


April 27, 2005

House Passes Bill that Allows Politicians to Invade Private Family Matters

Anti-Choice CIANA does nothing to help young women prevent unintended pregnancies, legislation threatens ministers, grandmothers who help young women in need with prison time

(Washington, DC) – Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, blasted House passage of the "Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act" --a far-reaching and intrusive bill that would impose a complex patchwork of parental involvement laws on women and doctors around the country that even its supporters cannot explain.

"We believe that loving parents should be involved when their daughter faces a crisis pregnancy. Unfortunately, some young women cannot involve their parents because they come from homes where physical and emotional abuse is prevalent or their pregnancies are the result of incest," Keenan said. "In these traumatic cases, young women need confidential access to a doctor. CIANA is a government-run-amok legislative jumble that does nothing to either prevent unintended pregnancies or strengthen troubled families. It is a complex set of inflexible bureaucratic mandates on families that are already under stress."

Keenan said CIANA was far more intrusive than previous versions of this legislation. CIANA includes new multiple and confusing reporting mandates on doctors and a provision that would prosecute responsible adults—such as grandparents or ministers--who help young women whose circumstances prevent them from confiding in their parents.

"CIANA would prohibit anyone other than a parent, including a grandparent, aunt, adult sibling, or minister from accompanying a young woman across state lines for an abortion if the home state’s parental-involvement law has not been met," Keenan said. "This means a grandmother could be prosecuted for accompanying her granddaughter to a doctor in another state —even if that doctor is closest to the young woman’s home and they were not attempting to evade a parental involvement law."

The American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American Public Health Association all have longstanding policies opposing mandatory parental-involvement laws because of the dangers they pose to young women and the need for confidential access to physicians.

Contact:

Ted Miller, 202-973-3034