Interstate Abortion Bill

{{Use American English|date=June 2025}}

The Interstate Abortion Bills have been a series of unsuccessful bills regularly nominated in the United States Congress. Several versions of the bill were passed between February 2005 and September 2006, but did not become law. If enacted, these bills would make it a federal crime for non-parents/guardians to take a pregnant minor from a state where abortion is illegal to a state where it is legal, for the purposes of an abortion, without the consent of the minor's parents, punishable by up to a year in prison.{{Cite news|last=Babington|first=Charles|date=July 26, 2006|title=Interstate Abortion Bill Clears Senate|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501197_pf.html|access-date=2021-09-11|issn=0190-8286}}

In 1998, the Child Custody Protection Act (H.R. 3682) passed the House by a vote of 276–150, but was not voted on by the Senate.{{Cite journal|last=Saul|first=Rebekah|date=August 1998|title=The Child Custody Protection Act: A 'Minor' Issue at the Top Of the Antiabortion Agenda|url=https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/article_files/gr010401.pdf|journal=Guttmacher Report|volume=1|issue=4|pages=1–2; 7|pmid=12294377}} In 2005, the House again passed the Child Custody Protection Act, with the Senate passing an amended version, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (S. 403), in July 2006 by a vote of 65–34.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=2006-09-27|title=House Passes Abortion Bill on Minors|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/washington/house-passes-abortion-bill-on-minors.html|access-date=2021-09-11|issn=0362-4331}} In September 2006, the House passed a compromise version by a vote of 264–153,{{Cite web|last=Abrams|first=Jim|date=2006-09-27|title=Interstate abortion bill passes again in House|url=https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Interstate-abortion-bill-passes-again-in-House-1643933.php|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Houston Chronicle|language=en-US}} but when the bill returned again to the Senate, it was filibustered.{{Cite web|last=Strode|first=Tom|date=September 27, 2006|title=Interstate abortion bill again gets House approval|url=https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/interstate-abortion-bill-again-gets-house-approval/|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Baptist Press|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last1=Tausanovitch|first1=Alex|last2=Berger|first2=Sam|title=The Impact of the Filibuster on Federal Policymaking|url=https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2019/12/05/478199/impact-filibuster-federal-policymaking/|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Center for American Progress|language=en-US}}

Additional versions of the bill, either named Child Custody Protection Act or Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, have been introduced in both the House and the Senate in 2011,{{Cite news|last=Itkowitz|first=Kolby|date=August 13, 2015|title=Throughout career, Marco Rubio has been a strong, if subtle, abortion rights foe|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/08/13/throughout-career-marco-rubio-has-been-a-strong-if-subtle-abortion-rights-foe/|access-date=September 10, 2021|newspaper=The Washington Post}} 2013,{{Cite web|last=|date=January 25, 2013|title=Senator Portman Introduces Child Custody Protection Act|url=https://www.ohiolife.org/senator_portman_introduces_child_custody_protection_act|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Ohio Right to Life}} 2015,{{Cite web|last=Gillin|first=Joshua|date=September 23, 2016|title=PolitiFact - Rubio would take away right to abortions for rape or incest victims, Murphy says|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/sep/23/patrick-murphy/rubio-would-not-allow-rape-or-incest-exceptions-ab/|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Politifact|language=en-US}} 2017,{{Cite web|last=Portman|first=Rob|date=2017-05-18|title=S.1173 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Child Custody Protection Act of 2017|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1173|access-date=2021-09-11|website=www.congress.gov}} 2019,{{Cite web|last=Clarke|first=Patrick|date=September 23, 2019|title=Texas congressman Ron Wright announces reelection bid despite lung cancer diagnosis|url=https://www.waxahachietx.com/news/20190913/texas-congressman-ron-wright-announces-reelection-bid-despite-lung-cancer-diagnosis|access-date=September 9, 2021|website=Waxahachie Daily Light|archive-date=September 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911035614/https://www.waxahachietx.com/news/20190913/texas-congressman-ron-wright-announces-reelection-bid-despite-lung-cancer-diagnosis|url-status=dead}} and 2021.{{Cite web|last=Johnson|first=Mike|date=2021-03-26|title=H.R.2223 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2223|access-date=2021-09-11|website=www.congress.gov}}

The 2006 version of the bill received the support of then-president George W. Bush.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that abortion is not a constitutionally-protected right. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the court in ruling that abortion was not constitutionally protected, Kavanaugh found that laws prohibiting women from traveling from a state where abortion care is illegal to a different state to obtain an abortion would infringe on constitutionally-protected freedom of movement between states, making Interstate Abortion Bills unconstitutional unless a federal act of Congress prohibited abortions.{{cite news |last=Stohr |first=Greg |date=June 24, 2022 |title=Justice Kavanaugh Says States May Not Bar Travel to Obtain an Abortion |work=Bloomberg News |location= |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-24/kavanaugh-says-states-may-not-bar-travel-to-obtain-an-abortion |access-date=June 24, 2022}}