In June, Texas Governor George Bush signed his state's parental notification law requiring minors to have a parent's permission to obtain an abortion, meaning that some 33 states now have such laws. The Child Custody Protection Act, currently being debated in Congress, would make it a federal crime to take another person's minor daughter out of one of those states to obtain an abortion in another state.

A sample of the debate from Judiciary Committee hearings:

• Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called the bill “a thinly veiled attempt to chip away at constitutionally protected rights.”

• Eileen Roberts testified that she didn't find out about her daughter's abortion until the 14-year-old became depressed and needed hospitalization. Roberts asked Congress to “reject the eccentric notion that any adult stranger has the right to abduct our minor-aged daughters and take them to another state for a secret abortion.”