More Credit Where Credit Is Due

Despite problems I also have with certain recent votes taken by the U.S. Senate, I also want to give them credit when it is due to them (EXCERPTS):

The Senate voted yesterday to make it a crime to take a pregnant minor to another state to obtain an abortion without her parents’ knowledge, handing a long-sought victory to the Bush administration and abortion opponents.

The bill would help about three dozen states enforce laws that require minors to notify or obtain the consent of their parents before having an abortion. It would bar people — including clergy members and grandparents — from helping a girl cross state lines to avoid parental-involvement laws. Violations could result in a year in prison.

Most states have passed such laws, but courts have invalidated at least nine of them, advocacy groups say. Maryland and Virginia have parental-notification laws; the District does not. The Senate voted 65 to 34 to approve the bill, which is similar to one the House has approved before, including last year.

The White House said the measure would "protect the health and safety of minors" and "protect the rights of parents to be involved in the medical decisions of their minor daughters consistent with the widespread belief among authorities in the field that it is the parents of a pregnant minor who are best suited to provide her counsel, guidance and support."

The administration urged House and Senate negotiators to reconcile their differences and send Bush a bill to sign. Unlike the Senate version, the House measure would penalize physicians who knowingly perform abortions for minors who circumvented parental-involvement laws.

GET THE STORY.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

10 thoughts on “More Credit Where Credit Is Due”

  3. Even Senator Reid voted Yay! Well that makes me happy that even as the Minority Leader some of his past Pro-Life feelings still influence his decisions.

  5. Good to see one of the most abortion-liberal country in the world begin to entertain the idea of restraint.

  6. Email Dick Durbin and nag him about the Dem caucus’s stonewalling of the bill (see BillyHW’s message above.) I did, and he sent me a nice email defending his position!

  8. Dick Durbin is Catholic (at least nominally). IL is home to Pro-abortion senators, thanks in no small part to our corrupt former governor.
    I don’t need a nice email from characters like him.

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