When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the court’s Roe v. Wade (1973) decision last summer, it did not outlaw abortion, FRC President Tony Perkins reminded listeners of “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “It simply said this is no longer for the courts. It’s [a decision] for the people’s elected representatives,” he explained. Given that most of the expansion or restriction in so-called abortion rights since the court decision has occurred at the state level, there is now a patchwork of laws addressing abortion across the U.S.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group, only six states require parents to give consent and to be notified. Ten states require only parental notification; 21 states require only parent consent. The group’s analysis revealed “most states that require parental involvement make exceptions under certain circumstances.” Fourteen states allow a minor to obtain an abortion in cases of abuse, assault, incest, or neglect; 33 states permit an abortion in a “medical emergency.”
Federal legislation would provide greater protection to the unborn and ensure all states are covered, which prompted Congresswomen Mary Miller (R-Ill.) to introduce a bill (H.R.4123) that would secure parental rights, which both the government and special interest groups seem intent on eroding, when an underage girl seeks an abortion. The bill, the Parental Notification and Intervention Act, would require abortion industry organizations that accept federal funding to inform the parents when a minor seeks an abortion.
The bill also specifies a four-day waiting period on the procedure, Miller told Perkins on “Washington Watch.”
“I do believe that if women were fully informed, if they were required to have an ultrasound, and if they had time to think it through and had wise counsel, I think a lot of women would change their minds,” she said.
“They’re in a panic. They’re driven by fear. They’re getting bad counsel. It’s a rash decision,” she continued, noting her bill seeks to give young people and their parents time to carefully consider this life and death decision. “Hopefully the parents will get the daughter medical intervention and wise counsel and share the truth with [her],” added Miller, who serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
It is only reasonable, Perkins agreed, that families have the opportunity to intervene when a minor girl is being pressured by an abortion clinic to make such a “life-altering and life-destroying decision.” Perkins pointed out that the bill also addresses the issue of young people being trafficked out of their home state to abort their baby without their parents’ knowledge.
”All children are created by God with a purpose, and that purpose begins at conception,” Miller writes in a press release on her website. ”The Left wants to strip the rights of parents in every way possible and put unrestricted ‘abortion-on-demand’ at the top of their priority list — even if it puts minors at risk.” The congresswoman promised to always be a “voice for the unborn and respect the rights of parents.”
A companion bill, SB1103, is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee. Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is the bill’s lead sponsor.
A related bill, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 792), passed the House April 27 by a vote of 270-157. The legislation, if enacted, would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for the purpose of obtaining an abortion. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). In the Senate, the bill (S.396) faces meager prospects of passage given the body’s Democratic majority.
Miller emphasized that her bill, as well as other pieces of legislation that protects innocent human life, should be a matter of prayer for Christ-followers. The congresswoman said she regularly meets with fellow members of Congress to pray for the United States. “Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power,” she said, expressing appreciation for Perkins’s call earlier in the program for Americans to be on their knees for the nation.
K.D. Hastings and his family live in the beautiful hills of Middle Tennessee. He has been engaged in the evangelical world as a communicator since 1994.
