Melvin Watt: “we have heard a lot of debate about the merits or lack of merits of abortions. I want to turn the attention of the…”

“we have heard a lot of debate about the merits or lack of merits of abortions. I want to turn the attention of the Members to another issue, and that is the legal issue that resulted in this matter coming to the Committee on the Judiciary, not the policy issue of abortion versus nonabortion. We deal with legal issues in the Committee on the Judiciary, and I would submit to this body that this is an unprecedented legal maneuver that is taking place here. There are a number of States that allow lotteries, but we do not prosecute somebody who goes from a State that does not allow a lottery to a State that does allow a lottery for doing that. There are a number of States that allow gambling. We do not prosecute a person that goes from one State that does not allow gambling to a State that allows gambling to engage in that legal activity in that particular State. This proposal would prosecute somebody for going to a State to engage in conduct that is legal in that State. So I do not think we need to be misled about this protection of States' rights. The States' rights that the proponents of this legislation are protecting are the rights of the States who have parental consent laws, not the rights of the States who do not have parental consent laws. We ought to be free to exercise the legal rights in the State in which those rights are available.”