Contact: Stacey Holliday, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 126
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Concerned Women for America (CWA) laments an enormous loss for children’s safety and parental rights after the Senate’s failure to once again pass Sen. John Ensign’s (R-Nevada) Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA), S. 403. This long-overdue legislation would have protected minors from being transported across state lines to get an abortion.
“It is outrageous that Senators have once again succumbed to partisan antics by terminating this very important bill,” said Lanier Swann, CWA’s Director of Government Relations. “Both the House and the Senate passed their versions of this very same legislation earlier in the year. Unfortunately Democratic leadership has obstructed the bill’s final passage for months. In an effort to see this bill freed up by the end of the 109th Congress, the House passed the bill yet again last week. Lo and behold, the Senate has killed the bill once again, and the bill will go without a final vote in this Congress. Certain Senators who had previously voted ‘yes’ to this bill were strong-armed into the opposing column.
“The Senate chose to disregard the American public’s wish to see this bill implemented. Apparently they are more dedicated to divisive partisanship than to the American public for whom this issue is overwhelmingly popular.
“This legislation would have given parents a means to ensure that their minor daughters aren’t smuggled across state lines to secretly have an abortion. There are many ill-intentioned adults who would like to cover up their actions by silencing an impregnated minor. The Child Custody Protection Act would have prevented this heinous crime from happening by requiring parental consent in states that already have laws in the books.
“We applaud Sen. Ensign for introducing this bill and working for its passage. We also wholeheartedly thank Sen. Frist for his bold and courageous leadership in doing all he could to get this bill to the President. It is unfortunate that their fellow Senators did not share the same concern for unsuspecting pregnant girls and their parents."
Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.
