[NOW Action List] You Can Stop the Teen Endangerment Act

Support NOW's Work |	September 28, 2006	| Tell a Friend

Action Needed Background All NOW Actions More About This Bill		Senate Will Vote Friday or Saturday: You Can Stop the Teen Endangerment Act Action Needed: As soon as you receive this message, regardless of the hour, please pick up the phone and call your senators' offices to leave a message of outrage. Or send an instant email through our system. Take Action Now! In the waning days of this Congress, just in time for the elections, Republican leaders are bringing up another dangerous anti-abortion bill, and they could pass it unless you urge your senator to stand firm to prevent this end-of-session vote. Please call or email your senators. Senators will be voting tomorrow, Friday, September 29, or possibly on Saturday, whether to end debate on the Teen Endangerment Act. If enough senators vote no, then the Senate will be unable to take a final vote on the act itself. So don't delay. Call right now and ask your senator to "oppose cloture" on S. 403, The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which we call the Teen Endangerment bill. We must ask the Senate to vote against the cloture motion in order to keep this cruel bill from coming to the Senate floor. As you know, it takes 60 votes to close debate on a bill and then move to a vote in the Senate. If fewer than 60 senators vote for cloture, the bill remains open for floor discussion and no vote can be held. That means that the bill's supporters will have to start over with a brand new bill in January. The Teen Endangerment Act will: impose a mandatory parental notification and delay requirement on young women who need abortion services outside of their home state make it a federal crime to assist young women who cross state lines to obtain an abortion, making criminals of friends and family members who help teens unable to involve a parent in their decision will subject young women, abortion providers, and others who assist the women to a confusing maze of overlapping and conflicting state and federal laws, which will make it more difficult and more dangerous for young women to obtain abortions We must let our senators know that this is an ill-advised and dangerous bill designed to prevent young women from seeking a legal medical procedure in an accessible and affordable location, especially if her own state has designed insurmountable barriers to her reproductive health care. It isolates and endangers young women who for many reasons cannot confide in their parents about their predicament. For young women, especially those who are low income or live in troubled families, this bill will not encourage child/parental dialogue but will surely force young women to become mothers. This bill, misleadingly called the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), was passed by the House on Tuesday, September 26, 264-153. Take Action Now! Background: This issue has been around for many years. Last year, the House passed the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 748) by 270-157. This past July, the Senate passed a similar bill, the Child Custody Protection Act (S. 403) by a vote of 65-34. A conference committee has not met to settle the bills' differences, so the House took up S. 403 and passed it Tuesday by a vote of 264-153, renaming it CIANA and adding notification requirements. The Teen Endangerment Act will impose a mandatory parental notification and delay requirement on young women who need abortion services outside of their home state. It will also make it a federal crime to assist young women who cross state lines to obtain an abortion -- making criminals of friends and family members who help teens unable to involve a parent in their decision. The law will subject young women, abortion providers, and others who assist the women to a confusing maze of overlapping and conflicting state and federal laws, which will make it more difficult and more dangerous for young women to obtain abortions. The Teen Endangerment Act (S. 403) does not protect teens; instead it harms young women who face unwanted pregnancies. It criminalizes family members and friends for trying to help. It serves no health purpose. In fact, because it provides no exceptions even when a teenager's health is in danger, it jeopardizes young women's health. In all of these ways, the Teen Endangerment Act endangers young women who face unwanted pregnancies. In many instances, it will actually interfere with how parents choose to raise their children. It also violates basic constitutional principles of federalism, reproductive rights, due process, equal protection and the right to travel. Take Action Now! Resources: NOW press statement on July Senate vote Center for Reproductive Rights analysis of CIANA, 1-06
SUPPORT NOW: Support NOW's Work for Equal Rights | Join NOW | Monthly Giving | Shop Online TAKE ACTION: Get Involved | Find Your Nearest Chapter | Tell a Friend | Learn More LISTS: Unsubscribe, Edit Profile | Subscribe | All Lists