Abortion Issue

As expected, the Maryland elections board has now certified enough petitions to assure that the abortion issue will be on the Maryland ballot in November 1992. Both anti-abortion and pro-choice forces are gearing for a mammoth and costly campaign, which is odd since the decision before the voters comes down to one hard, clean question: Do you, or do you not, favor maintaining the presently existing right of a woman to secure a safe and legal abortion? We are confident that when the chips are down, Maryland voters, regardless of their personal opinion on the abortion issue, will ratify the abortion law adopted by their representatives in the General Assembly in January.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue in Maryland found reason for encouragement in Monday's federal court decision in Pennsylvania allowing restrictions on abortion.Opponents of abortion took the ruling as more evidence that the momentum in the fight is shifting dramatically to their side. Supporters of Maryland's new abortion law, set to be tested in a November 1992 referendum, said the ruling would prompt people who have never been active on the issue to join the campaign to keep abortion legal.

A Maryland Senate committee of 11 lawmakers may decide early next week which of six abortion bills will serve as the focus of a floor debate over one of the most emotional issues revisiting the General Assembly.The bills -- representing various viewpoints on both sides of the question -- were the subject of a five-hour hearing yesterday in Annapolis before a joint committee of lawmakers from the House and the Senate.Dozens of people testified before a crowd of more than 100 spectators, while outside the building where the hearing took place a handful of mostly anti-abortion demonstrators marched quietly in the cold wind under the eyes of an equal number of police.

IS SAN DIEGO to be another Houston? Republican leaders have good reason to fear following the takeover of the GOP state convention in Texas by religious conservatives. Of the 123 delegates chosen, as many as 90 are pledged to a no-exceptions anti-abortion plank and to the nomination of a pro-life running mate on Bob Dole's national ticket. "There is a rogue elephant from Texas that means business," proclaimed a Dallas pro-lifer.If this trend becomes a tidal wave, it could turn the Republican National Convention in San Diego next August into a repeat of the moralistic convention in Houston four years ago that contributed to George Bush's defeat.

WHAT MUST be infuriating to the latest targets of Alfonse D'Amato, otherwise known as "Senator Potshot," is that he is politically on target. Of fellow Republicans like Pat Buchanan, who are staunchly anti-abortion, Mr. D'Amato asks why such "philosophical ayatollahs" think they can dictate to the GOP. Of House conservatives, particularly Speaker Newt Gingrich, he said their "harsh rhetoric" created an impression Republicans are a "party without compassion."If...

WASHINGTON -- The struggle over abortion rights returns to the streets of the nation's capital this weekend as activists on both sides gear up for showdowns in the Supreme Court and Congress.A "Freedom of Choice" rally tomorrow will be "the largest demonstration and march this city has ever seen," said Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW).She said the abortion-rights demonstration would attract five to 10 times as many protesters as the 70,000 anti-abortion activists who marched on the Capitol earlier this year.

WASHINGTON -- If hypocrisy were a commodity that could be packaged, you could argue that the Senate cornered the market in the debate over the nomination of Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. to be surgeon general.The Republican insistence that the procedural roadblock they built against his confirmation was based on his qualifications rather than the abortion issue and politics was a joke. As Sen. Jim Exon, a Nebraska Democrat, put it in the extravagant language used so often in the Senate, Foster was being "crucified on the altar of presidential politics, pure and simple."

WASHINGTON -- A group of Republican activists meeting privately last month to help the party fashion some policy positions produced one statement that spoke of "fairness for all Americans," a favored phrase of the prose stylists of both parties. But one member of the group quickly moved to amend the document to read "fairness for all Americans, born and unborn."The statement didn't even deal with the abortion issue. But when two other members of the group of about 30 Republicans quickly moved to second the amendment, the rest shrugged and let it pass.

I was frankly "flabbergasted" (and I haven't used that word in a long time!) when I viewed the opinion pages of the March 7 Columbia Flier. I counted nine letters in support of Ms. Maria Santo's extremely anti-abortion letter which appeared in the Feb. 28 edition of the Flier.  And how many letters taking the opposing pro-choice view appeared in the opinion pages of the March 7 Flier? None!  Zilch! Nada!  Imagine that! I'm left to assume that either 1) the editors at the Flier are "cherry-picking" the letters to the editor to push a particular bias or agenda on the abortion issue;  2)

Abortion opponents appealed to Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening yesterday to abandon his campaign promise to lift current restrictions on state-funded abortions for poor women.A coalition of anti-abortion groups released the results of a new public opinion poll showing that most Marylanders want the restrictions on abortions financed under the Medicaid program left in place or even tightened.The abortion opponents claimed that the November election produced anti-abortion majorities in both houses of the General Assembly, and they predicted that Mr. Glendening is setting himself up for a political embarrassment if he tries to implement his promise.