The Center for Reproductive Rights urges the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the so-called "Child Custody Protection Act," S. 851 (CCPA). The Center opposes CCPA because its passage would not only harm the health of teenagers across the country, but will also direct the full force of the federal criminal justice system against grandparents, clergy, counselors, and others who attempt to help young women in need. The Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA) would make it a federal crime for anyone other than a parent to assist a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion, unless she meets the requirements of her home state’s parental involvement laws.
This bill is not about protecting minors – its purpose is to make it more difficult for minors to obtain abortions by threatening to punish trusted adults to whom they turn for help. It is also an attempt to regulate family dynamics, ignoring the fact that some young women cannot involve their parents in their abortion decision and turn to other family members, clergy and counselors for guidance and assistance. While most teenagers talk to their parents about such decisions – and are more likely to do so the younger they are – others cannot do so for reasons including physical and sexual abuse. Those who feel they cannot involve their parents will go to any lengths to avoid doing so. As a result of CCPA, some will be forced to travel to a distant clinic alone, seek risky alternatives, or carry unwanted pregnancies to term.
CCPA is also an assault on the core American principles of federalism and state sovereignty, which hold that the laws of a state only apply within its boundaries. Under this act, a state legislature’s decision to reject parental involvement requirements would be overridden by that of the legislature from the state in which a minor resides. In addition, states that currently allow grandparents, adult siblings and others to assist a minor would, in effect, have their laws rewritten by states with more rigid requirements. These changes would create chaos, as doctors would have to decipher not only the laws of their state, but also those of the other states in which their patients live.
At a time when so many other pressing matters are before Congress and the federal courts, it is outrageous that legislators are seeking to have federal prosecutors spend resources enforcing such an entanglement of state laws, punishing trusted adults for helping teenagers, and jeopardizing the well-being of America’s young people.
