Abortion clinics are marketing their services to minors in states with parental consent laws, drawing them to states where they can get an abortion without their parents’ permission, according to Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
“Ohio and the majority of other states require parents’ involvement if their minor children have an abortion,” Portman said in a Jan. 24 statement. “Yet, 13 states and the District of Columbia do not have such laws on the books. Minors who live in the states bordering on these outliers are often transported across state lines for abortions as a way to get around their home-state parental involvement requirements.”
Portman asserted abortion clinics in states with lax laws are targeting minors across state lines by advertising that they require “no parental consent” at their clinics.
He introduced the Child Custody Protection Act in January, which would make it illegal to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion if doing so would circumvent parental consent laws.
PolitiFact Ohio picked up Portman’s claim on Wednesday. After doing its own digging, PolitiFact gave the it the green light:
Portman’s office showed us other ads, from New York, New Jersey and Illinois, that stated “no parental consent” required. Some of the ads were nearly a decade old, others more recent. Based on this and our own Web searches, it appeared that Portman was correct in at least one regard — that some abortion clinics in states that don’t have parental-consent laws were informing minors in other states of their parental-consent options.
PolitiFact’s Truth-O-Meter rates claims as true or false on a scale of True to “Pants on Fire.” It rated Portman’s statement as “True.”
Ohio Right to Life applauded Portman’s Child Custody Protection Act.
“Nationally, we are witnessing increased efforts by abortion clinics encouraging minors to travel across state lines to circumvent parent involvement,” said Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life president, in a statement. “We must continue to protect our children from the predatory practices and advertisements of those wishing to turn a profit through abortion, and we thank Senator Portman for his leadership.”
