Ensign to take lead on one of top GOP priorities

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was tapped by Senate Republican leaders to shepherd one of the party's top 10 legislative priorities this year: a bill that bans the transport of a minor across state lines for an abortion in order to circumvent state parental notification laws.

Senate GOP leaders unveiled their agenda for the new Congress at a Capitol press conference Monday, outlining the 10 most important bills they plan to introduce this year. The bills range from reforming Social Security to crafting a national energy policy.

No. 8 on the priority list is the Child Custody Protection Act, which Ensign introduced in April 2003. It was sent to the Judiciary Committee, but the panel never conducted a hearing on it.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Republican Conference which helps set the party agenda, declined to say why the issue moved up to a top 10 priority for the party.

Ensign said party leaders last year talked about making a new push for the legislation, and that they viewed it as a bill that was likely to pass. Ensign cited a poll that said 83 percent of Americans support parental notification laws. The survey was conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide, a right-leaning Washington polling firm.

"I come to this issue as a parent," Ensign said. "If my kid has to take an aspirin in school, they have to get my permission. I was looking at this as: Would I want someone to do this with my daughter? The parent has a right to know."

Nevada has a law requiring the notification of one parent, passed in 1985, but a federal court injunction banned it from taking effect because it did not allow for a timely "judicial bypass" in which the minor could also obtain a judge's permission to go across state lines.

Forty-four states have parental notification or consent laws on the books or pending, but 10 of those states, including Nevada, have laws that are suspended because of the court ruling, according to Planned Parenthood, which advocates abortion rights. Six states have no law on the issue. None of those states abuts Nevada.

Ensign's legislation calls for a punishment of up to a year in prison. Ensign's proposed law does not apply to a minor who transports herself across a state line, only to another person who does the transporting.