Contact: Jason Jones, Human Life International, 540-551-0217, jjones@hli.org

FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, Sept. 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, issued the following statement regarding the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), H.R. 748, and its Senate companion bill S.403, the Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA):

“At issue in today’s debate is Senate Democrats continued meddling in the efforts of the U.S. House to protect young girls from sexual abuse and exploitation. 

“The House has consistently passed its interstate abortion notification bill, which would impose criminal penalties on any adult who transports a minor girl across state borders in order to avoid parental notifications laws for abortion in that child’s home state. 

“Each time, the radical pro-abortion lobby’s water carriers in the U.S. Senate have blocked passage of its companion bill in their chamber.  A few pro-abortion senators, led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), seem more interested in protecting sexual predators than in protecting the young girls on whom they prey.

“I believe that Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R-Ga.) summed up the importance of this bill best in his floor speech when he stated, ‘I can address this issue wearing three different hats: as an OB/GYN physician …as a Member of Congress, and most importantly as a proud father.  I have four children, three of whom are grown women and two of them with children of their own. As a father, I have an obligation to defend my children and grandchildren against danger.  As a Member of Congress, I have the same obligation to the children and grandchildren of every parent in the country. And, as a physician, I have the obligation under the Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm.’ The Child Custody Protection Act recognizes this fundamental bond between parent and child and reaffirms the obligation of a parent to be involved and help make important decisions affecting both the life and health of a minor child.’

“HLI strongly encourages these obstructionist senators to get out of the way and allow this legislation to proceed to the desk of the president and become law.”