How is Locking Up Grandma Pro-Family?
Senator Clinton, arguing against the "Child Custody Protection Act" (or The Teen Endangerment Act), yesterday offered a brief break from all the "pro-life" distortions with an eloquent reality-based speech from the Senate floor. Here are her comments unedited:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the floor of the U.S. Senate
July 25, 2006:
I met the 14-year-old who already had a baby, and I met the 12-year-old who was now pregnant with her father's baby. And my heart just broke. Who was that child supposed to talk to? Where was that child supposed to go? The sister was trying to help her younger sister. If she had a driver's license, she might have driven her to where she could have gotten medical care.
A couple years later, I was practicing law in Little Rock, and Arkansas had a parental consent law with a judicial bypass. People were called by judges whenever this occurred and were asked to come and represent the young girl who was appearing before the court. I got called one day, as I was on the list as a practicing lawyer.
So I went and met my client, a 15-year-old girl. She had been raped by her mother's boyfriend and was pregnant. Her mother could have cared less. Maybe her mother should have cared. Lord knows, I wish she had cared. But she didn't want to disrupt the relationship with the boyfriend. So the girl needed to come to court and get a judge to give her permission because there was no parent. There may have been a biological parent, but there wasn't a parent in any sense of the word other than biology.
By that time, I had my own daughter and I thought, what a tragedy. You know, life isn't always the way we wish it would be. Sometimes tragedies happen, and sometimes families are not just negligent but abusive. Sometimes young girls are taken advantage of by members of their family, people in whom they should be able to trust.
So I just have to say that when we talk about experience, we can all bring experience to the floor of the Senate. We can talk about the many instances where things worked out, parents did do the right thing; they gave their children the right values, gave them the appropriate education to know how to take care of themselves, to respect themselves. But I have lived long enough to know that is not everybody.
I wish it were. But in the meantime, we are going to sacrifice a lot of girls' lives.
We now know, because we have research to prove it, what works. We know that in South Carolina--for example, in a Wall Street Journal article recently was a story about small, impoverished towns that had a high rate of teenage pregnancy, and they decided they wanted to do something, and they got help. They had one-on-one coaching sessions for parents who would come and participate. They preached abstinence, but they also taught about contraception and they made it clear what they wanted their children to do, how they expected them to behave to try to prevent irresponsible sexual activity and pregnancy. They tried to make both the young women and the young men accept responsibility for their actions.
I know, too, in my state, we have a lot of grandmothers and aunts who are raising children. The Child Custody Protection Act would put any family member--a sister, aunt, or grandmother--in jail for helping a teenager deal with one of the most difficult decisions that any person has to make. I don't believe that these young women should make those decisions alone. Certainly, we are complicating the lives of everyone instead of doing our duty as parents, as family members, and as leaders, which is to inculcate and pass on values but to recognize that reality is messy. I have championed kinship care, and I know how many grandparents are raising children, and I know from my own personal experience how many older relatives who are faced with very difficult situations would be criminalized if they tried to reach out and help a young girl who asked them for that kind of assistance.
The Child Custody Protection Act, while seeking to criminalize what a teenager does once she is pregnant, fails to address the issue of teen pregnancy in this country, the root of the problem. One of the most important initiatives I worked on as First Lady and am proud to continue to champion in the Senate is the prevention of teen pregnancy. In 1996, we worked with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy to set a goal to reduce teen pregnancy by one-third within a decade, and I am proud to say that we met that goal.
But we did not do it overnight. We invested over a period of time. We invested in different programs and initiatives, recognizing that this issue could not be solved with a one size fits all approach. And according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, between 1991 and 2004, the teen birth rate fell 33% to a record low for those aged 15 to 19.
And while we are all pleased that the teen pregnancy rate has dropped since 1991-- as I am that in my home state of New York, it's come down a full 10%--we also recognize that this is just a drop in bucket if we are truly going to get to the root of the problem and eliminate pregnancy among girls and boys who are far too often too young and unprepared, emotionally and financially, to be mothers and fathers.
Sadly, even with this decrease, the United States continues to have the highest rate of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world. Today, 34% of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20, and that results in about 820,000 teen pregnancies a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended.
Last week, CNN highlighted in a story what research has consistently shown: teenagers who receive comprehensive sex education that includes discussion of contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only messages to delay sexual activity and to use contraceptives when they do become sexually active.
Teenagers need to be educated that abstinence is the best defense against an unwanted pregnancy, and they also need to be educated and encouraged to exercise cautious decisions about sex.
We should not have a cookie cutter approach to preventing teen pregnancy. In instances where young people are sexually active and are likely to remain so, we need to ensure that they are encouraged to use contraception consistently and carefully.
Sadly, instead of putting resources into this important fight to prevent teen pregnancy, we are adding more penalties for those who try to help teens during their time of crisis.
The Child Custody Protection Act would put any family member--a sister, aunt, grandmother--in jail for helping a teen cross state lines to obtain an abortion.
I don't believe that any young woman should have to make this decision alone. Research actually shows that in most cases, young women already involve one or both parents when faced with an unintended pregnancy, without being required to do so by law. But, tragically, not every family is perfect.
There are some instances in which a young woman simply cannot involve her parents, including rape, violence or incest; and for some in this body to pretend that those instances should not be considered in this debate is unconscionable. The Child Custody Protection Act glosses over these complicated situations, making criminals out of grandparents, clergy and other adults who try to act in good faith.
Instead of criminalizing other caring adults in a teenager's life, we should do more to educate and involve parents about the critical role they can play in encouraging their children to abstain from sexual activity. Teenagers who have strong emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active at an early age.
I am disappointed that this bill does not provide any exemptions for adult relatives or clergy who seek to provide guidance and support to young women seeking abortions. ….The reality is, not every child is fortunate enough to be raised by their biological parents. Nationwide, more than six million children--1 in 12 children--are living in households headed by grandparents. In New York City alone, there are over 245,000 adolescents already living in grandparent households.
It's important to note that for many families, but these families in particular, the legal guardian who has physical custody and who provides a young woman with support and guidance are not one in the same.
This bill fails to acknowledge the importance of close family members such as grandmothers and aunts, who often raise their relatives or play a significant role in their lives. In doing so, this bill creates a strong incentive for young women to seek risky alternatives she wouldn't have considered if permitted to seek counsel from her family and community. Major medical and public-health organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association oppose governmental parental-involvement laws because of the risk to women's health.
While we all hope that young women will involve their parents in these decisions, mandating parental consent has the serious potential to do more harm than good. In fact, during congressional testimony, Dr. Warren Seigel, an expert in adolescent medicine, stated that legislation mandating parental involvement "represents bad medicine and places politics before the health of our youth."
The Child Custody Protection Act is a reflection of the misdirected priorities out there when it comes to truly doing something about unintended pregnancy. Rather than criminalizing family members and clergy who are trying to provide guidance to these young women in crisis, we should be working to re duce the rate of teen pregnancy in this country. There are far better ways to prevent pregnancy than putting people in jail.
That is why my good friend Harry Reid and I have long championed the Prevention First Act here in the Senate which, among other important measures, ensures that government-funded sex education programs provide medically accurate information about contraception. And that is also why I rise today to encourage all of my colleagues to support the Lautenberg-Menendez amendment because we need policies that support and educate our young women about the importance of prevention now more than ever.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the floor of the U.S. Senate
July 25, 2006:
I met the 14-year-old who already had a baby, and I met the 12-year-old who was now pregnant with her father's baby. And my heart just broke. Who was that child supposed to talk to? Where was that child supposed to go? The sister was trying to help her younger sister. If she had a driver's license, she might have driven her to where she could have gotten medical care.
A couple years later, I was practicing law in Little Rock, and Arkansas had a parental consent law with a judicial bypass. People were called by judges whenever this occurred and were asked to come and represent the young girl who was appearing before the court. I got called one day, as I was on the list as a practicing lawyer.
So I went and met my client, a 15-year-old girl. She had been raped by her mother's boyfriend and was pregnant. Her mother could have cared less. Maybe her mother should have cared. Lord knows, I wish she had cared. But she didn't want to disrupt the relationship with the boyfriend. So the girl needed to come to court and get a judge to give her permission because there was no parent. There may have been a biological parent, but there wasn't a parent in any sense of the word other than biology.
By that time, I had my own daughter and I thought, what a tragedy. You know, life isn't always the way we wish it would be. Sometimes tragedies happen, and sometimes families are not just negligent but abusive. Sometimes young girls are taken advantage of by members of their family, people in whom they should be able to trust.
So I just have to say that when we talk about experience, we can all bring experience to the floor of the Senate. We can talk about the many instances where things worked out, parents did do the right thing; they gave their children the right values, gave them the appropriate education to know how to take care of themselves, to respect themselves. But I have lived long enough to know that is not everybody.
I wish it were. But in the meantime, we are going to sacrifice a lot of girls' lives.
We now know, because we have research to prove it, what works. We know that in South Carolina--for example, in a Wall Street Journal article recently was a story about small, impoverished towns that had a high rate of teenage pregnancy, and they decided they wanted to do something, and they got help. They had one-on-one coaching sessions for parents who would come and participate. They preached abstinence, but they also taught about contraception and they made it clear what they wanted their children to do, how they expected them to behave to try to prevent irresponsible sexual activity and pregnancy. They tried to make both the young women and the young men accept responsibility for their actions.
I know, too, in my state, we have a lot of grandmothers and aunts who are raising children. The Child Custody Protection Act would put any family member--a sister, aunt, or grandmother--in jail for helping a teenager deal with one of the most difficult decisions that any person has to make. I don't believe that these young women should make those decisions alone. Certainly, we are complicating the lives of everyone instead of doing our duty as parents, as family members, and as leaders, which is to inculcate and pass on values but to recognize that reality is messy. I have championed kinship care, and I know how many grandparents are raising children, and I know from my own personal experience how many older relatives who are faced with very difficult situations would be criminalized if they tried to reach out and help a young girl who asked them for that kind of assistance.
The Child Custody Protection Act, while seeking to criminalize what a teenager does once she is pregnant, fails to address the issue of teen pregnancy in this country, the root of the problem. One of the most important initiatives I worked on as First Lady and am proud to continue to champion in the Senate is the prevention of teen pregnancy. In 1996, we worked with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy to set a goal to reduce teen pregnancy by one-third within a decade, and I am proud to say that we met that goal.
But we did not do it overnight. We invested over a period of time. We invested in different programs and initiatives, recognizing that this issue could not be solved with a one size fits all approach. And according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, between 1991 and 2004, the teen birth rate fell 33% to a record low for those aged 15 to 19.
And while we are all pleased that the teen pregnancy rate has dropped since 1991-- as I am that in my home state of New York, it's come down a full 10%--we also recognize that this is just a drop in bucket if we are truly going to get to the root of the problem and eliminate pregnancy among girls and boys who are far too often too young and unprepared, emotionally and financially, to be mothers and fathers.
Sadly, even with this decrease, the United States continues to have the highest rate of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world. Today, 34% of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20, and that results in about 820,000 teen pregnancies a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended.
Last week, CNN highlighted in a story what research has consistently shown: teenagers who receive comprehensive sex education that includes discussion of contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only messages to delay sexual activity and to use contraceptives when they do become sexually active.
Teenagers need to be educated that abstinence is the best defense against an unwanted pregnancy, and they also need to be educated and encouraged to exercise cautious decisions about sex.
We should not have a cookie cutter approach to preventing teen pregnancy. In instances where young people are sexually active and are likely to remain so, we need to ensure that they are encouraged to use contraception consistently and carefully.
Sadly, instead of putting resources into this important fight to prevent teen pregnancy, we are adding more penalties for those who try to help teens during their time of crisis.
The Child Custody Protection Act would put any family member--a sister, aunt, grandmother--in jail for helping a teen cross state lines to obtain an abortion.
I don't believe that any young woman should have to make this decision alone. Research actually shows that in most cases, young women already involve one or both parents when faced with an unintended pregnancy, without being required to do so by law. But, tragically, not every family is perfect.
There are some instances in which a young woman simply cannot involve her parents, including rape, violence or incest; and for some in this body to pretend that those instances should not be considered in this debate is unconscionable. The Child Custody Protection Act glosses over these complicated situations, making criminals out of grandparents, clergy and other adults who try to act in good faith.
Instead of criminalizing other caring adults in a teenager's life, we should do more to educate and involve parents about the critical role they can play in encouraging their children to abstain from sexual activity. Teenagers who have strong emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active at an early age.
I am disappointed that this bill does not provide any exemptions for adult relatives or clergy who seek to provide guidance and support to young women seeking abortions. ….The reality is, not every child is fortunate enough to be raised by their biological parents. Nationwide, more than six million children--1 in 12 children--are living in households headed by grandparents. In New York City alone, there are over 245,000 adolescents already living in grandparent households.
It's important to note that for many families, but these families in particular, the legal guardian who has physical custody and who provides a young woman with support and guidance are not one in the same.
This bill fails to acknowledge the importance of close family members such as grandmothers and aunts, who often raise their relatives or play a significant role in their lives. In doing so, this bill creates a strong incentive for young women to seek risky alternatives she wouldn't have considered if permitted to seek counsel from her family and community. Major medical and public-health organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association oppose governmental parental-involvement laws because of the risk to women's health.
While we all hope that young women will involve their parents in these decisions, mandating parental consent has the serious potential to do more harm than good. In fact, during congressional testimony, Dr. Warren Seigel, an expert in adolescent medicine, stated that legislation mandating parental involvement "represents bad medicine and places politics before the health of our youth."
The Child Custody Protection Act is a reflection of the misdirected priorities out there when it comes to truly doing something about unintended pregnancy. Rather than criminalizing family members and clergy who are trying to provide guidance to these young women in crisis, we should be working to re duce the rate of teen pregnancy in this country. There are far better ways to prevent pregnancy than putting people in jail.
That is why my good friend Harry Reid and I have long championed the Prevention First Act here in the Senate which, among other important measures, ensures that government-funded sex education programs provide medically accurate information about contraception. And that is also why I rise today to encourage all of my colleagues to support the Lautenberg-Menendez amendment because we need policies that support and educate our young women about the importance of prevention now more than ever.
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