Abortion Controversy

WASHINGTON -- The abortion issue, promoted as never before as a crucial question for America's mainstream voters, turned into a political puzzle of deep complexity as the ballots were counted yesterday.Two public officeholders who were special favorites of one side or the other in the abortion controversy were thrown out of office or seemed close to defeat, and their stands on the subject seemed to be a contributing if not the decisive factor.One who clearly did not survive after being targeted for defeat by the other side was Florida's Republican Gov. Bob Martinez, TC fervent abortion foe who could not get the legislature to pass restrictive bills he wanted.

I'm responding to the recent article "Abortion controversy heating up in Indiana" (May 4). Where was the big abortion controversy before Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade when women and girls were not only forced to bear pregnancies against their will but forced to risk their lives seeking medically unsafe ones? The light bulb went on for me this evening. My grandmother, who was one of 18 children from a blended, dirt poor family from Virginia, and whose mother died when she was 10 months old, attempted a self-induced abortion, as did her sisters.

I'm responding to the recent article "Abortion controversy heating up in Indiana" (May 4). Where was the big abortion controversy before Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade when women and girls were not only forced to bear pregnancies against their will but forced to risk their lives seeking medically unsafe ones? The light bulb went on for me this evening. My grandmother, who was one of 18 children from a blended, dirt poor family from Virginia, and whose mother died when she was 10 months old, attempted a self-induced abortion, as did her sisters.

WHEN A 19-year-old unwed mother aims a pistol at her abdomen to end a six-month pregnancy, society is clearly witnessing an act of tragic desperation. Kawana Ashley, the St. Petersburg, Fla., woman who was charged with murder and manslaughter when her daughter lived only 15 days after an emergency delivery, feared that her grandmother, who had custody of her 3-year-old son, would not accept another child. Ms. Ashley had just lost her job, and could not afford the $1,350 she needed for an abortion.

If the acrimonious battle over abortion in the General Assembly last year proved nothing else, it proved conclusively that there is nothing left to debate on this issue. At the end of a prolonged filibuster, no minds had been changed on either side, but the residue of bitterness spilled over into the 1990 election with disastrous consequences for many of those who took part in the filibuster.So it is welcome news that leaders of both houses are determined to dispose of the issue early. It seems a foregone conclusion that the unlimited right to early abortion as guaranteed by Roe vs. Wade will be approved this year; the last remaining issue probably will be over the requirement of notification of parents of minors who seek abortions.

WHEN A 19-year-old unwed mother aims a pistol at her abdomen to end a six-month pregnancy, society is clearly witnessing an act of tragic desperation. Kawana Ashley, the St. Petersburg, Fla., woman who was charged with murder and manslaughter when her daughter lived only 15 days after an emergency delivery, feared that her grandmother, who had custody of her 3-year-old son, would not accept another child. Ms. Ashley had just lost her job, and could not afford the $1,350 she needed for an abortion.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave state legislatures new, broader discretion yesterday to put limits on teen-agers' right to abortion by giving both parents a role in the decision.In a brief order, the court turned aside without comment a constitutional challenge to a 1986 Mississippi law that goes the farthest of any state to prevent minors' abortions by requiring the written consent of both parents.The action marked the first time that new Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had voted on a significant abortion case.

WASHINGTON -- Harry A. Blackmun, the quiet man at the storm center of the abortion controversy that still blows hard against America's public conscience after 20 years, put aside his accustomed reserve recently to give Bill Clinton some blunt advice.As they sat together at a conference on ideas, the "Renaissance Weekend" at Hilton Head, S.C., the Supreme Court justice who wrote the first abortion rights decision told the soon-to-be president to forget the idea of picking future members of the court only if they favor abortion rights.

Washington. -- Democrats, so often mistaken about so much in presidential politics, believe they can pluck the flower of opportunity from the nettle of the abortion controversy. But they may be misreading the significance of the Supreme Court's decision to rule by July on Pennsylvania's abortion law.A divided court may give dusty answers about the constitutionality of that law's various provisions. Besides, for most Americans abortion is a troubling but peripheral issue, especially during the ravages of a recession.

With a day remaining in the 1990 primary election season, abortion remained a paramount issue for many candidates and voters in Maryland -- but it lost some of the spotlight to the role of special-interest money in elections, to Gov. William Donald Schaefer and even to Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.The threat of war and the massive mobilization of soldiers and equipment in the Middle East may well have pushed state-level political races -- often obscure for many voters -- even further from the public consciousness.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave state legislatures new, broader discretion yesterday to put limits on teen-agers' right to abortion by giving both parents a role in the decision.In a brief order, the court turned aside without comment a constitutional challenge to a 1986 Mississippi law that goes the farthest of any state to prevent minors' abortions by requiring the written consent of both parents.The action marked the first time that new Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had voted on a significant abortion case.

Maryland officials are discovering what President Clinton and Congress are about to learn: that it is a tortuous task to develop a comprehensive health care plan that is both affordable and free of political controversy.The state's health care reform effort, though modest in comparison with Mr. Clinton's, became law earlier this year and is nearing completion of its first phase: the development of a minimum package of health benefits that insurers must offer small companies beginning next summer.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg revised her most controversial public statement on abortion in the weeks before she was picked by President Clinton, making changes that show her to be more sympathetic to a woman's right to end pregnancy.The changes are now being circulated quietly here by some of her supporters to offset doubts that she genuinely favors abortion rights -- doubts spurred by a university lecture last spring critical of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling creating a woman's right to abortion.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg revised her most controversial public statement on abortion in the weeks before she was picked by President Clinton, making changes that show her to be more sympathetic to a woman's right to end pregnancy.The changes are now being circulated quietly here by some of her supporters to offset doubts that she genuinely favors abortion rights -- doubts spurred by a university lecture last spring critical of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling creating a woman's right to abortion.

WASHINGTON -- The 20th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion did not pass quietly here. As expected, the city was overrun with opponents of abortion rights to remind everyone how complex and contentious this issue has been -- and probably will continue to be for another generation of Americans.The only thing different about this year's march is that the "right-to-life" demonstrators, as they characterize themselves, didn't have a friend and ally in the White House for the first time in 12 years.

WASHINGTON -- Harry A. Blackmun, the quiet man at the storm center of the abortion controversy that still blows hard against America's public conscience after 20 years, put aside his accustomed reserve recently to give Bill Clinton some blunt advice.As they sat together at a conference on ideas, the "Renaissance Weekend" at Hilton Head, S.C., the Supreme Court justice who wrote the first abortion rights decision told the soon-to-be president to forget the idea of picking future members of the court only if they favor abortion rights.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg revised her most controversial public statement on abortion in the weeks before she was picked by President Clinton, making changes that show her to be more sympathetic to a woman's right to end pregnancy.The changes are now being circulated quietly here by some of her supporters to offset doubts that she genuinely favors abortion rights -- doubts spurred by a university lecture last spring critical of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling creating a woman's right to abortion.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg revised her most controversial public statement on abortion in the weeks before she was picked by President Clinton, making changes that show her to be more sympathetic to a woman's right to end pregnancy.The changes are now being circulated quietly here by some of her supporters to offset doubts that she genuinely favors abortion rights -- doubts spurred by a university lecture last spring critical of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling creating a woman's right to abortion.

Washington. -- Democrats, so often mistaken about so much in presidential politics, believe they can pluck the flower of opportunity from the nettle of the abortion controversy. But they may be misreading the significance of the Supreme Court's decision to rule by July on Pennsylvania's abortion law.A divided court may give dusty answers about the constitutionality of that law's various provisions. Besides, for most Americans abortion is a troubling but peripheral issue, especially during the ravages of a recession.

If the acrimonious battle over abortion in the General Assembly last year proved nothing else, it proved conclusively that there is nothing left to debate on this issue. At the end of a prolonged filibuster, no minds had been changed on either side, but the residue of bitterness spilled over into the 1990 election with disastrous consequences for many of those who took part in the filibuster.So it is welcome news that leaders of both houses are determined to dispose of the issue early. It seems a foregone conclusion that the unlimited right to early abortion as guaranteed by Roe vs. Wade will be approved this year; the last remaining issue probably will be over the requirement of notification of parents of minors who seek abortions.