Abortion Law

The two sides in Maryland's fight over same-sex marriage agree on this: It won't be over until November. With the state Senate's approval Thursday night of the governor's bill to legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples, opponents are expected to mobilize quickly to gather the signatures to petition the legislation to referendum. State elections officials say they are already getting calls seeking information on how to start the process. Even the bill's staunchest supporters expect its opponents to easily gather the 55,736 signatures necessary to put the question on the November ballot.

Letter writer John Rutkowski has a right to his views, but his comments on Gary Trudeau's comic strip were infuriating and disgusting ("Idiotic 'Doonesbury' strip on abortion insults readers," March 20). First, Mr. Trudeau's comic strips on the Texas abortion law were satirical, humorous and right on the mark. Would Mr. Rutkowski like a government-mandated, invasive "wanding" of his internal parts? I think not. Second, to compare Mr. Trudeau's wonderful artistic talent to Howard Stern's crude objectification and denigration of women is completely off the mark.

Maryland's health secretary, joined by more than 100 doctors and Baltimore's health commissioner, yesterday urged approval of Question 6, the new abortion law that goes before the voters Tuesday."

Doonesbury fans may have a hard time finding their favorite strip this week, as some newspapers shy away from Garry Trudeau's hard-edged lampooning of a Texas abortion law. In a week-long series , Trudeau takes direct aim at the law, which requires women to have an ultrasound procedure before an abortion. For some papers, phrases such as "slut" and "10-inch shaming wand" were a bit too hard to take. The harshest bit of dialogue may be the day-four bit comparing a transvaginal sonogram to rape.

ANNAPOLIS -- After verifying signatures on thousands of petitions, the state elections board has made it official: Maryland's new abortion law will appear on the November 1992 ballot -- and Marylanders can expect an expensive, full-scale political battle to be waged over the issue.Yesterday's announcement was a foregone conclusion for both abortion opponents and abortion-rights advocates, who already have spent months organizing for next summer's big campaigns.Budget estimates say each side will have to raise at least $1 million, with some observers guessing the campaigns will cost many times that.

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. says his initial reading of the Supreme Court's abortion decision of yesterday upholding some Pennsylvania abortion laws is that it does not reinstate Maryland's 1968 abortion law. That's our reading, also.Maryland's law, which allows abortions only in hospitals and bans them there except in a limited number of circumstances, was made unenforceable by Roe vs. Wade.That 1973 Supreme Court decision said women have a broad and "fundamental" constitutional right to an abortion.

Following is the text of the abortion law passed by th Maryland legislature in 1991. Because the law was petitioned to referendum, voters will decide next month whether the law goes into effect or not. In the text, CAPITALS indicate matter added to existing law. [Brackets] indicate matter deleted from existing law.By: Senators Blount, Pica, and BakerIntroduced and read first time: January 16, 1991Assigned to: Judicial ProceedingsCommittee Report: Favorable with amendmentsSenate action: Adopted with floor amendmentsRead second time: February 8, 1991CHAPTER 1AN ACT concerningAbortionFOR the purpose of revising certain statutory provisions relating to abortion; authorizing a physician to perform an abortion on an unmarried minor without notice to a parent or guardian of the minor if, in the professional judgment of the physician, the minor is mature and capable of giving informed consent or notice would not be in the best interest of the minor; prohibiting a physician from giving notice to a parent or guardian if the minor decides not to have the abortion; repealing a certain provision of law related to certain information that must be provided prior to an abortion; repealing certain provisions of law related to abortion referral services; CLARIFYING A PROVISION OF LAW RELATED TO REFERRAL SERVICES; requiring that an abortion be performed by a licensed physician; providing that the State may not interfere with the decision of a woman to terminate a pregnancy if certain conditions...

Maryland's health secretary, joined by more than 100 doctors and Baltimore's health commissioner, yesterday urged approval of Question 6, the new abortion law that goes before the voters Tuesday."

The Vote kNOw Coalition, leading the fight against an abortion-rights law on the November ballot, challenged the League of Women Voters yesterday to stop campaigning for the measure, saying the league's reputation as a source of fair information is at stake.League members said the organization, which abstains from endorsing political candidates or parties, routinely takes stands on important issues and doesn't intend to stop now."The league traditionally takes positions on issues it has studied," said Nancy Schneider, president of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County.

Dr. Ben Carson, the Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon featured in commercials urging voters to reject a new abortion law, yesterday disavowed the ad -- saying he didn't realize he was making a political spot and wishes he hadn't."

The two sides in Maryland's fight over same-sex marriage agree on this: It won't be over until November. With the state Senate's approval Thursday night of the governor's bill to legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples, opponents are expected to mobilize quickly to gather the signatures to petition the legislation to referendum. State elections officials say they are already getting calls seeking information on how to start the process. Even the bill's staunchest supporters expect its opponents to easily gather the 55,736 signatures necessary to put the question on the November ballot.

In response to a botched abortion last year that led to a semiconscious teenager being transported to a hospital in the back of a Chevy Malibu, the state health department has proposed the first regulations on Maryland's nearly 20-year-old abortion law. The rules announced Friday are meant to increase oversight of surgical abortion clinics, which are not currently held to the same standards as other outpatient surgery facilities. "In general, abortions are safe and performed with high-quality staff and facilities," said Frances B. Phillips, deputy secretary of Public Health Services for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Sounding similar calls, abortion rights supporters and opponents alike say they want Maryland authorities to continue investigating a doctor and his clinic network in the wake of a botched abortion in Elkton last month that critically injured an 18-year-old woman. The case has put a spotlight on Maryland's abortion law, which is less restrictive than those in nearby states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In those states, unlike in Maryland, later abortions must be performed at a surgical center or hospital rather than at a doctor's office.

South Dakota's ban on nearly all abortions, signed into law yesterday, has opened deep rifts within the anti-abortion and the abortion-rights movements, as the two camps struggle to frame the issue to political advantage. The divisions have turned traditional abortion politics topsy- turvy. Some foes of abortion - fearful that South Dakota has moved too far, too fast - find themselves reluctantly opposing efforts to protect all fetal life from the moment of conception. They are even angling to block another abortion ban that seemed likely to pass in Mississippi.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court set the stage yesterday for a major ruling on abortion by agreeing to decide whether Congress can outlaw so-called partial-birth abortions during the mid-term of a pregnancy. The fate of the federal law, the first nationwide ban on an abortion procedure, probably depends on President Bush's two new appointees: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito. The court has been closely split on how strictly the government may regulate abortion, with former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor usually casting a deciding vote.

WASHINGTON -- The first abortion case to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in five years prompted a tense discussion inside a packed chamber yesterday with justices appearing split over whether the law does enough to safeguard the health of a pregnant girl. The case involves a New Hampshire law that requires a parent to be notified before a minor can have an abortion. Though the law does not directly challenge the right to an abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, advocates on both sides on the debate believe the outcome could signal where the court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. could come down on the issue.

An article yesterday on Maryland's new abortion la incorrectly explained one of the exceptions under which a doctor may perform an abortion on a minor without notifying a parent. A doctor does not have to inform a parent if the physician believes that notification would not be in the girl's best interests.The Sun regrets the errors.Maryland's new abortion law takes effect today, but women entering clinics won't find a great deal has changed.The law, approved by referendum last month, was enacted to keep most abortions here legal even if the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Roe vs. Wade, its 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to abortion.

The Supreme Court said yesterday that it would revisit the emotional debate over abortion for the first time in five years, agreeing to review a parental-notification law in an unexpected decision made against the politically charged backdrop of ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's possible retirement. The case could end up being as much about legal technicalities as about fundamental questions of abortion law; a central issue in the appeal is what standard should be used to assess whether state abortion laws pass constitutional muster.

NEW YORK - A federal judge struck down the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act as unconstitutional yesterday. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Casey labeled the procedure gruesome, but he faulted the ban for not containing an exception to protect a woman's health, something the Supreme Court has made clear is required in laws prohibiting particular types of abortion. The decision by Casey, who granted a permanent injunction preventing the act from going into effect, is the latest against a law that was signed by President Bush in November.