House’s abortion bill may not get to Bush

WASHINGTON – Accompanying a minor across a state line to obtain an abortion and avoid parental notification in the girl’s home state would become a federal crime under a bill the House passed Tuesday.

Republican supporters said the 264-153 vote confirmed public sentiment that parental involvement superseded a minor’s right to have an abortion. Democratic opponents foresaw the arrests of grandmothers and religious counselors trying to shield girls from abusive parents.

Washington state’s congressmen voted along party lines, with all three Republicans supporting the bill and the six Democrats voting against it.

Chances are slim that the House and the Senate, which approved a more limited version of the bill in July, will devise a compromise they can send to the president before the end of this session of Congress.

The House on Tuesday passed another bill on that agenda, a measure aimed at discouraging lawsuits against local, state and federal governments over issues involving separation of church and state.

The abortion bill, and a similar measure passed by the Senate in July, make it a federal crime to take a pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion without her parent’s knowledge.

The House bill also makes it a crime if the abortion provider in the second state fails to give one of the minor’s parents, or a legal guardian, 24 hours notice before an abortion is performed.

The person transporting the minor across state lines, or the doctor who fails to provide notification, would be subject to a $100,000 fine or one year in jail or both.

The House bill contains Senate language preventing a parent who has committed incest from being able to sue and obtain money damages from someone who might transport a minor across state lines for an abortion. It also encompasses cases in which a minor is taken to a foreign nation or an Indian reservation for an abortion.