Passage of teen abortion bill called likely

The bill's advocates evoke the image of a girl being impregnated by an abusive older man who then drives them to an out-of-state abortion clinic so the girl's parents and the authorities won't find out about a relationship that might have been illegal because of age differences.

Opponents of the bill say it would criminalize the well-meaning acts of an aunt, older sister, or other confidante who assist a girl terrified of being beaten or evicted from home if her parents learned of the pregnancy.

''You're talking about girls who really need support -- let them use whatever support they have," said Shawn Towey of the National Network of Abortion Funds. ''This bill is going to have a chilling effect on people who are just there to help."

Titled the Child Custody Protection Act and carrying a sentence of up to one year in prison, the bill has bounced around Congress for years, winning House approval three times but never reaching a vote on the Senate floor. Only now, after making the Senate GOP's top 10 priority list, do supporters and foes believe its passage is probable.

''We're proceeding as if it's going to pass," said Lorraine Kenny of the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project. ACLU lawyers already are studying possible challenges on grounds that the bill violates the right to travel from state to state and does not make an exception for cases when a girl's health is jeopardized.

Activists on both sides expect support for the bill from majority Republicans, perhaps joined by some Democrats. Some doubt Democratic leaders will wage an all-out fight against it.

''Politically, it would be very high risk for the Senate Democrats to filibuster this bill," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. ''Polls show that about 80 percent of Americans support the concept of parental notification."

Opponents agree that young women are better off telling their parents about a pregnancy, and say most do so voluntarily. But abortion-rights activists argue that politicians should not impose mandates that might backfire in cases where family communication already has broken down.

''Instead of encouraging them to involve a trusted adult who may be able to offer much-needed assistance, this law will cause some young women to face interstate travel for medical care alone," says a NARAL Pro-Choice America briefing paper. ''Even worse, it may force young women to turn to self-induced or illegal abortions."

Thirty-two states have parental-involvement laws in force, though the National Right to Life Committee considers eight of the laws ineffectual because of loopholes. In all but Utah, a procedure allows a minor to petition a judge for permission to get an abortion without telling her parents. In many courts, these waivers are granted routinely to any reasonably mature girl who asks; elsewhere the requests often are denied, prompting some girls to opt for an abortion in a state without a parental involvement law.