A bill that would make it a federal crime to avoid a state's parental consent or notification law by transporting a minor across a state line for an abortion is expected to come up for a full vote in the House of Representatives in mid-July.

The Child Custody Protection Act (HR 3682) would impose misdemeanor penalties on any person who transports an underage girl across a state line and thereby abridges a parent's right, under state law, to give consent or receive notification regarding their minor daughter's abortion. Violators could receive up to a year in prison and be fined up to $100,000.

Over 20 states, including Maryland, have such a law.

The bill would also allow the parents to file lawsuits against those who violate the law. The bill stipulates that neither the minor who receives the abortion nor a parent of such a minor may be prosecuted or sued under the law.

The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee June 23 on a 17-10 party line vote, after Democrat committee members tried to weaken it with more than 20 amendments, all of which the Republican majority rejected. A similar bill is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Dr. Terry McGuire (D) and Ellen Sauerbrey (R), opponents in the race for governor, shared a table at the Pro-Life Maryland Annual Forum in May

House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott have said they hope to place the bill on President Clinton's desk sometime this summer. The Clinton administration is strongly opposed to the legislation.

Studies show that teenage girls who become pregnant are mostly impregnated by adult males. To avoid statutory rape charges and other consequences, these men often pressure the pregnant girls to obtain abortions without their parents' knowledge. In states with parental involvement laws, the men can easily take the girls to neighboring states without such laws.

'This legislation will help parents protect their young daughters at a time when they may be especially vulnerable to manipulation by much older males,' said Susan Muskett, a policy analyst for the National Right to Life Committee. Abortion rights groups and most Democrats oppose the bill.

'The proposed bill takes away safe alternatives to parental involvement, such as turning to other relatives or close family friends and replaces them with life-endangering ones, like hitchhiking, self inducing or seeking out back alley abortions,' the National Abortion Federation said in a statement.

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