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=> Abortion-rights advocates join forces
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- Thursday, February 12 2004, 3:05:18 (EST) from 69.14.56.182 - d14-69-182-56.try.wideopenwest.com  Commercial -  Windows XP -  NetscapeWebsite: Website title: |
Abortion-rights advocates join forces By KATRICE HARDY, The Virginian-Pilot © February 10, 2004 RICHMOND — Last year, it dawned on state Sen. Janet D. Howell. Her most conservative colleagues were not just trying to make it impossible to get abortions in Virginia. They also wanted to deny women access to some forms of birth control. “We have people actually arguing about whether pharmacists have the right to dispense contraception,” said Howell, D-Fairfax. This year, when anti-abortion lawmakers introduced 20 bills in the General Assembly, Howell and her allies were ready. They formed the Reproductive Rights Council and began meeting weekly to discuss what they see as legislation that cuts into women’s rights. Their primary purpose is to counter the increasing success that anti-abortion opponents have had in recent years. See the complete Pilot, exactly as in print - View stories, photos and ads - E-mail clippings - Print copies Log in or learn more -Email this Page -Print this Page -Get Email Newsletters There seems to be no appreciation in the General Assembly for women’s health anymore, said Del. Vivian E. Watts, a Democrat from Fairfax. “Their whole focus is only on a fetus and not on the woman,” Watts said. “They don’t understand that this is a matter of choice and reproductive freedom.” The council includes a handful of mostly female, Democratic senators and members of the House of Delegates from all over the state, except from South Hampton Roads, which is primarily represented by Republicans. Their top priority is a bill declaring that contraception is not abortion and should not be subject to any laws that might restrict abortion. The bill, SB456, won approval in a Senate committee last week. The council also is pushing a bill requiring that the Family Life Education curriculum in public schools continuously be updated to include the latest medical information on abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual assaults. That bill, HB1273, sponsored by Del. Kristen J. Amundson, D-Fairfax, was voted down on the House floor Monday. Members of the council said they know it will be tough to get their legislation past an increasingly conservative General Assembly. Their main goal is to educate the public, raising awareness of the limits to abortion and contraception that many Virginia lawmakers are championing. The Reproductive Rights Council’s cause has won the support of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition of Virginia, a group that differs with the majority of its party on the issue of protecting legal abortions. Ironically, Howell said, many of the council’s members find themselves defending a procedure they don’t necessarily support because they strongly believe a woman should have all the choices afforded by the law. “This is what they’ve brought us to,” she said. Anti-abortion legislators don’t have a formal name for themselves. Nor do they gather weekly. They decide informally during the 10 months when Virginia’s General Assembly is not in session which issues they will tackle in the upcoming year. Their main strategy has been to pick at abortion slowly, one detail at a time. Once they have won a new restriction, they use all their resources to focus on their next priority. It’s a game plan that’s brought them slow but powerful victories and has begun to worry those who disagree with them. “I compare our movement with that of the gun-rights supporters,” said Del. Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun, one of the House’s most ardent anti-abortion fighters. “Six years ago, they had some difficulty. Now their bills just fly through, one after the other. “We’re not there yet, but we will get there.” It took more than 10 years for lawmakers to pass a requirement in 1997 that parents must be notified before minors could receive abortions. In the late 1990s, lawmakers agreed to an informed consent law, which forces abortion providers to provide a woman with information about the procedure and her other options. Patients must wait 24 hours before receiving an abortion. Then abortion opponents concentrated on toughening the parental notification law. As of last year, minors must receive permission from their parents before they get an abortion. Black said the law saves thousands of babies’ lives a year and has helped build considerable momentum for anti-abortion legislators. “We passed one of the toughest parental consent laws in the nation,” he said. Last year, state legislators also banned a procedure known as partial-birth abortion. The law was struck down last week by a federal judge. Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, who is expected to run for governor in 2005, has said he will appeal the decision. Black shrugged off the court ruling, which declared that Virginia’s law violated privacy rights and did not take a woman’s health into consideration. “We will prevail at the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said. Virginia’s limits on abortion aren’t uncommon, according to a report issued this month by The Alan Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health research organization based in New York and Washington, D.C. The report noted that more than 30 states have bans on partial-birth abortions. Eighteen states have laws that have been blocked by a court because they do not allow partial-birth abortions when there are threats to a woman’s health. The report did not include last week’s ruling on Virginia’s law. About 33 states require some parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion, and 11 states allow some health-care providers to refuse to provide contraceptive services, the report said. It also found that the procedure is one of the safest surgeries for women, with a risk of serious complications that is less than 1 percent. The report also stated that Virginia’s abortion rate has declined slightly over time, mirroring a national trend. In 1981, there were more than 35,000 abortions performed in the state, compared with about 28,000 in 2000, the last year the numbers were available. Black and his allies said they believe that’s 28,000 too many. This year, they have turned their attention to abortion clinics and to laws that would give fetuses rights. Black; Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William; Del. John S. Reid, R-Henrico; and Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, R-Fairfax, have introduced measures to force abortion clinics to meet the same requirements as outpatient surgical centers. Proponents of the bills, HB1290, SB146 and HB116, said their intent is to protect women and make procedures safer. But the state Department of Health and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia have said the costly requirements would shut many abortion clinics down. To meet the new standards, many would have to renovate or build new facilities equipped with large operating rooms, elevators and wider halls. Black, Marshall and Cuccinelli also are sponsoring bills that would give fetuses their own rights and privileges. One, called the “fetal pain” bill, HB1315 and SB371, would require that abortion providers give the fetus anesthesia. Black said no other state has ever considered such a requirement. Several other bills, sponsored by Del. John A. Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, and Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, among others, would criminalize the death of a fetus when a woman is assaulted. The bills, HB1 and SB319, became popular after the death of Laci Peterson and her unborn baby. The House of Delegates passed the legislation last week. The Senate approved its version, sponsored by Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, a Republican from Virginia Beach, Monday. Two other bills restrict the state’s colleges and universities from issuing emergency contraception pills, commonly referred to as “morning-after” pills. Some people view the pills as a form of abortion because they prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies them as a contraceptive. The legislation, HB1414 and HB1403, has sparked controversy among college students, who have held a number of rallies in Richmond this year. Sponsors of anti-abortion bills traditionally have found more support in the House of Delegates, especially in recent years, as Republicans who are sympathetic to their cause have assumed leadership positions. The emergency contraception bills, for example, were pulled last week out of the House’s Education Committee, where their fate was uncertain. At the request of Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, the bills were sent to the Courts of Justice Committee led by Del. Robert F. McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach. Marshall said he wanted the bills in McDonnell’s committee because they are more receptive to efforts to restrict abortion. Lawmakers who want college students to have access to morning-after pills were outraged. McDonnell said the bills belong in his committee because most abortion laws are in the state’s criminal code. His committee also has been assigned to consider the fetal pain bill. The committee is expected to take action on all the proposals within the next week. Even if McDonnell’s panel and the full House pass the legislation, however, it will have to get through the Senate. Anti-abortion bills traditionally have trouble in the Senate’s Education and Health Committee. That panel last week rejected Cuccinelli’s proposals for regulating abortion clinics, and it would be the group to hear the House's version if it passes. Abortion opponents said they will not stop until abortion is banned. “If our nation is to survive, we have to eliminate abortion,” Black said. Reach Katrice Hardy at (804) 697-1580 or katrice.hardy@ pilotonline.com --------------------- |
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