Leila Abolfazli, Senior Counsel

When your line of work is protecting reproductive rights, like me, sometimes you just don’t know how the day will go. Some days you just never know. And last Tuesday was just one of those days. That day I went to the markup of H.R. 2299, a bill titled the “Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act” that took place in the House Committee on the Judiciary. This bill, which is better called the “Teen Endangerment Act,” would jail an aunt or grandmother who supports a niece or granddaughter who crosses state lines to seek abortion care. The bill would also jail a doctor who provides abortion care to a teen who crosses state lines for such care when the doctor did not first inform the teen’s parents. There are very few exceptions to these onerous and dangerous provisions (including none that consider the health of the pregnant teen), meaning that this bill would most likely result in teens being denied access to abortion care they seek or make teens seek such care without any support from a trusted adult.

I went to the markup not really knowing what to expect, particularly because the hearing a few weeks before had not been very dramatic, especially when compared to other recent hearings on reproductive issues (most notably the “Where Are the Women” contraceptive coverage hearing and the hearing on the “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011”). Unfortunately, the markup made up for the hearing’s relative lack of drama, as I sat through hours of votes where every amendment that would have made this harmful bill just a little less harmful was rejected. Yes, the amendment that would have exempted a grandmother from criminal penalties for helping her granddaughter during her time of need was voted down. Yes, the Committee rejected an amendment that would have provided an exception to the criminalization of a minister or older sister who supports a teen seeking abortion care where the teen’s health was in danger. The Committee also rejected a similar amendment that would have exempted physicians from criminal penalties for failing to notify a teen’s parents where the health of the teen was in danger (yes, in case you were wondering, this is the Judiciary Committee rejecting a provision that the Supreme Court has said is required in any restriction to abortion access). The Committee also voted down an amendment that would have exempted the criminalization of an older brother or neighbor who helps a teen when she fears for her physical safety if forced to notify one or both parents. Are you starting to get why I felt pretty deflated after this markup?

I have loved sports from a very early age. By the time I was ten, I was playing basketball, softball, and gymnastics. But when I got to 7^th grade, I found my true love – cross country. A bit of a natural runner, I loved everything about it. I loved the feeling of running through the woods, of slipping on muddy paths, of hearing the encouragement from my teammates as I ran through the finish line.

A lot of people tend to think cross country as a solitary sport; that it’s you running all alone. But it’s not. At least for my cross country life, it was all about the team. We practiced together as a team, stretched together as a team, did silly pranks as a team. And we raced as a team.

Waiting at the start line for the race to begin, I remember my teammates jumping up and down, pumping one another up in order to forget the wracked nerves or our shivering legs exposed to the bitter cold. I remember the guys on the team (whose race started after ours) chanting our school’s sports songs, and us echoing the chants right back at them. I remember that in those rigorous races, you needed that team. You needed those chants.