Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I offer a motion to recommit.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?

Mr. NADLER. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I am most certainly opposed to the bill.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to recommit.

The Clerk read as follows:

Mr. Nadler moves to recommit the bill H.R. 748 to the Committee on the Judiciary with instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith with the following amendment:

Page 5, line 5, insert after ``(a)'' the following: ``, other than a parent who caused the minor to become pregnant as a result of rape or incest''.

Page 9, line 2, insert after ``(a)'' the following: ``, other than a parent who caused the minor to become pregnant as a result of rape or incest''.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, this bill allows a father to sue the person who accompanied the young woman or, if he did not receive the required notice, to sue the doctor who provided the abortion even if he himself, the father, that is, caused the pregnancy by rape or incest.

If adopted, my motion to recommit would simply ensure that this right to sue does not extend to a parent who caused the pregnancy through rape or incest. The motion to recommit would ensure that this bill would not enable such rapists to profit from their wrongdoing.

I know the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) will say that the bill already prohibits suits by rapists, but the so-called prohibition in the bill applies only to suits against the doctor, not against the person who accompanied her, and even against the doctor only in the unlikely event that the minor declares the rape in a signed written statement to the doctor. 

Aside from that exception, the rapist under this bill will profit from the newly established rights to sue the doctor or the unlimited newly established right to sue the person who accompanied her.

I cannot believe that any Member of this House, even those who support parental-consent laws, could really want to enable a criminal, a father who raped his daughter and caused the pregnancy, to be able to profit from his wrongdoing by suing doctors, grandmothers, and clergymen. This motion would correct this obvious mistake; and I think, or at least I hope, that the sponsors of this bill would agree that this amendment should be adopted.

Mr. Speaker, there has been a great deal of loose talk over the last few days about sexual predators and the need to protect young women. We may not agree in this House on the best way to protect these young women, but we should all be able to agree that a father who rapes his daughter should not profit from his crime. This bill as presently constituted gives him that power. The motion to recommit would take that ability away from him and would do nothing else at all.

The motion to recommit simply says a father who rapes his daughter or commits incest with her and causes that pregnancy cannot then sue someone who performs an abortion or who accompanies her to an abortion.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the motion to recommit with instructions. This motion is necessary in order to correct a glaring deficiency in H.R. 748. In its current form, H.R. 748 would permit a parent who impregnated his daughter nonetheless to bring an action under the bill against a health provider or a person accompanying a young girl across State lines for violation of the bill's notification provisions when a young girl travels across State lines to seek an abortion.

Mr. Speaker, this is about incest. My friends on the opposite side of the aisle would have you believe that there is an exception in this bill, that somehow they have taken care of this. It is not true. They have not made an exception for someone, a parent, that could now sue because the young girl did not come to them and get their permission, or if a person assisted this young girl, taking her across State lines.

The Nadler-Waters motion to recommit would prohibit a parent who caused his daughter's pregnancy from bringing an action under the bill against a health care provider or any person accompanying the minor across State lines when that minor travels across State lines to obtain an abortion.

Mr. Speaker, a parent who has molested his child and left her facing pregnancy should not be allowed to sue a medical care provider who aided this child in her moment of need or sue someone who accompanied his child across State lines to help her safely address this tragic situation. Nor should that parent have any role in his daughter's decision to seek an abortion, unless the daughter chooses to give her parent such a role. A person who has violated his daughter in such a horrible way simply must not be entitled to any relief.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the motion to recommit H.R. 748 to the Committee on the Judiciary with instructions so that, at the very least, the committee may correct the obvious miscarriage of justice that the bill produces in its current form. And if my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle continue to insist that they made an exception, make them show it to you in the bill. Make them prove it to you.

Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in opposition to the motion to recommit.

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, what the two proponents of the motion to recommit are arguing is something that simply is not going to happen. If the father of a young girl impregnates her as a result of an incestuous act, filing a lawsuit will expose that crime and the evidence that would have to be submitted by the defendants would end up very clearly showing that that father did commit a crime.

What would happen as a result of this bill not passing, with or without the amendment, is that the father who did commit that crime of incest would want to destroy the evidence of that crime without alerting the authorities. This bill prevents that, and the bill requires the alerting of appropriate authorities to protect young girls from future abuse.

Those who oppose this bill and are supporting this motion to recommit would doom the victims of rape and incest to continued abuse. Supporters of this bill want to prevent that abuse from continuing. 

Vote down the motion to recommit, and vote for the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit.

There was no objection.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.

The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the noes appeared to have it.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, the Chair will reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for electronic voting on the question of passage.