Congressional Cmte: Chickens More Important Than Secret Abortions 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 8, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A Congressional committee on Wednesday voted against an amendment that would prohibit taking teenagers out of state for secret abortions without their parents’ knowledge. The committee eventually decided protecting chickens was more important than protecting children.
The House Judiciary Committee considered a bill to limit animal fighting such as using dogs or cockfighters.
The bill prohibits transporting the animals across state lines to engage in animal fights.
During the debate, pro-life Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, tried to attach an amendment to the bill to prevent someone other than a teenager’s parents from taking her to another state to have an abortion.
Sensenbrenner brought up the case of Marcia Carroll, whose 14-year-old daughter was coerced by her boyfriend’s family into traveling from her home state of Pennsylvania to New Jersey to have an abortion against her will.
"I recognize we are meeting here today to consider a bill to protect chickens," Sensenbrenner said in a statement given to LifeNews.com. "But isn’t protecting our nation’s young women, like Mr. Carroll’s daughter, and their unborn equally, if not more important, than our dinner entrée?"
"Without this amendment, we will be giving more protection to chickens than we will be giving to minor children, their parents and their unborn baby," he said.
Committee member Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, agreed.
"I will not sit here and lend my vote to a piece of policy that elevates chickens above the lives of humanity," he said.
The amendment would have attached the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act to the animal fighting bill. That’s a measure the House overwhelmingly approved on a bipartisan vote last year but was held up by pro-abortion Democrats in the Senate.
However, pro-abortion Rep. Robert Scott, a Virginia Democrat, raised a point of order against the amendment and pro-abortion Michigan Democrat Rep. John Conyers ruled the it out of order.
Sensenbrenner appealed the decision, and pro-abortion Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York moved to table it. The Sensenbrenner motion was eventually tabled by an 18-14 party line vote.
The president of the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacelle, told the Associated Press in an interview after the vote that he found the pro-life amendment "outrageous."
"It was designed to load up the bill in order to kill it," he said.
The legislation now heads to the full House for a vote. Sensenbrenner could propose his amendment again only if the House adopts a rule for debate on the bill that allows amendments.
But, with abortion advocates controlling the Rules Committee, Sensenbrenner may not be allowed to offer his amendment.
Related web sites:
House Judiciary Committee – https://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx
