Priest Who Calls Abortion a ‘Blessing’ Tells Congress She'd Break Law to Help Minor Cross State

Priest Who Calls Abortion a ‘Blessing’ Tells Congress She'd Break Law to Help Minor Cross State Line to Get One


We have another Democratic Party witness testifying at a House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution hearing.

This shill witness actually said she would break a law if it existed !!

(CNSNews.com) – Were Congress to outlaw the transporting of a minor without her parents’ permission across state lines to get an abortion, an abortion- and gay-rights activist testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday she would break the law to continue to help girls end their pregnancies.

Appearing as a Democratic Party witness at a hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. recalled the time she took a 15-year-old girl she had never met before to get an abortion.

Aiding a minor she never met before ?

“Although New Hampshire was closer to that girl’s home than Boston, as it happened, I did not take her across state lines,” Ragsdale said. “Nor did I, to my knowledge, break any laws.

“But if either of those things had been necessary in order to help her, I would have done them,” she continued. “And if helping young women like her should be made illegal I will, nonetheless, continue to do it.”

Ragsdale cited her vows as an Episcopal priest as the reason why she would “have no choice” but to break the law.

I wonder what Episcopal vows give somebody no choice but to break a law ?

Subcommittee chairman Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said a bill introduced in the House last summer – the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 2299) – would make it an offense to “circumvent parental consent laws in a state by, without the parents’ knowledge, taking a minor girl across state lines for an abortion.”

He said he found it difficult to believe opposition to the law, like that expressed by the subcommittee’s ranking member Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who called it an “assault to the reproductive rights of women.”

Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale chokes Speaks




This sounds like a rebuttal to the contraception/financial mandate protests by religious groups

and perhaps a "second coat" over the Sandra Fluke controversies



I think the "age to make a choice" should be 18

or by emancipation

What does being emancipated matter? You would still be underage with the same mental capabilities. Just because the girl would have a legal paper saying shes now her own person?

When I was 15 I would have known if I wanted to have a baby or not. The same conservatives that shun abortion shun social programs that would help teen moms. And a lot of teen moms come from broken households that are usually poverty stricken.

I'm not trying to get in an ethical argument about abortion, I'm just saying...

Originally posted by RealSpoke
What does being emancipated matter? You would still be underage with the same mental capabilities. Just because the girl would have a legal paper saying shes now her own person?

When I was 15 I would have known if I wanted to have a baby or not. The same conservatives that shun abortion shun social programs that would help teen moms. And a lot of teen moms come from broken households that are usually poverty stricken.

I'm not trying to get in an ethical argument about abortion, I'm just saying...

edit on 10-3-2012 by RealSpoke because: (no reason given)

Good point.

I am assuming a legal status would be recognized.

But you are right, the age is still the same.

I wonder what the legal status of mothers under 18 is ?

Could be a factor to consider for all of this.

example question

Who "owns" a health insurance policy if a mother is 15 ?

How does Medicaid (or Food Stamps, etc) view a 15 year old mother (legally) ?

reply to post by xuenchen


Food stamps depends on your household income, not individual. Even if you're 18 and you live with your mom, you're still considered a dependent. Same with pell grants and most if not all government programs.

But usually if you're underage the doctor has to have your parents consent to have anything done. Reproductive right laws different from state to state though.

reply to post by xuenchen


...Transporting a minor?

If you took my daughter across state lines without my permission for any purpose what-so-ever, especially for an invasive medical procedure...... no God in heaven will save you from me.