by Mike Fisher

About the author: Mike Fisher is the attorney general for Pennsylvania. He presented this testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee during hearings about the Child Custody Protection Act.

Imagine that you are a divorced mother working hard to raise your children— to ensure they stay in school, stay away from drugs and alcohol and learn the difference between right and wrong. You awake early one morning to find a note left by your barely teenage daughter. You know something is wrong. You check with the neighbors. You call her friends’ parents. You call her school only to learn that she is not there. Finally, you call the police. No one knows where your daughter is or what happened to her.

That evening she returns home and informs you that she...