Ellen Marshall blogged earlier today about the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), and Nancy Keenan of NARAL did as well. (See also: Feministing.) It went through a vote yesterday in the House in a way that left us wondering if it was a purely political stunt. As Ellen pointed out, by passing the bill with slightly different language than the Senate version, House conservatives appeared to have killed their own initiative. There was little presumed chance that the Senate would be able to return to it in time to approve it before this session of Congress ended, and failure to act would have left it dead until next session.

But apparently this won't be the case: news early from NFPRHA early this morning reports that Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) filed a procedural motion that could still get the Senate to vote on this bill before this session of Congress ends. If this happens, CIANA — aka the Teen Endangerment Act — would almost certainly become law.

Just in time for election day too… Considering that this Congress has done strikingly little in recent months, conservative politicians appear to be banking on this as a last-ditch effort to look good to social conservative voters. Nancy Keenan was right — this is a distraction move.