My friend and yours, Bill "Of Course Schiavo's Not a Vegetable" Frist has dreamed up a whole new way to infringe on the reproductive rights of young women with the so-called Child Custody Protection Act. If passed, it would be a federal crime for any adult other than a parent to accompany a minor for abortion care.
For pregnant young women in abusive home situations, this leaves few options: tell the parents and risk a violent response, try and navigate getting an abortion alone, attempting a potentially fatal home abortion, or try and hide the pregnancy and figure out what to do with the baby when and if it comes. This isn't even taking into account the sick home situations where the father or other family member impregnated the girl.
The punishment for a non-parent who accompanies a girl anyway? Fines, the chance of a civil lawsuit and up to a year in prison.
NARAL has a form to send to your senators - fill it out and pass it along. The vote is today!
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I honestly don't think my personal opinion (or yours, truth be told) about abortion itself is relevant here. What is relevent are the statistics that show that regardless of the legal status of abortion, it's going to happen - the only difference is that when there are legal barriers, desperate women, and teens, will perform "back alley" abortions which not only remove the fetus but pose serious health risks for the woman. My interest are teenage girls in home situations that don't allow communication with their parents - At the most extreme point in this argument, I would rather a girl regret an abortion than die.
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