Liberals Protect Chickens Over Children

-- Citizenlink.org (2/8/07)

The House Judiciary Committee considered a bill Monday to increase penalties for transporting animals across state lines for fighting -- largely an effort to oppose chicken fights.

Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Peter King, R-N.Y., saw it as an opportunity to make an important point. They attempted to amend the bill with the language of the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. It would make it a crime to circumvent state parental-notification laws by transporting a young girl across state lines for an abortion. That bill passed both chambers in the last Congress, but failed when Democratic leadership took the unusual step of refusing to appoint members to a conference committee to work out differences between the two versions.

The Democratic Judiciary Committee leadership ruled the pro-life amendment "non-germane" -- leading to a series of three procedural votes on whether to allow it. Each vote was down party lines, and, in the end, Democrats saw fit to give roosters more protection than parents, their daughters and preborn babies.