Abortion Rights

WASHINGTON -- The Republican National Committee has now decided it will forgo the pleasure of hearing witnesses give live testimony before its platform committee at the national convention in San Diego.Instead, those who want to make their views known are being encouraged to use the mails.The decision represents an obvious and understandable attempt by the Republicans to minimize the harsh divisions within their party on the abortion-rights issue -- or at least to minimize the extent that those divisions might be exacerbated by the television cameras.

Seattle. -- As an advocate of abortion rights, I have long been angered and frustrated by groups like Operation Rescue that seek to physically hinder those women forced to make the painful personal decision to terminate their pregnancies. But I do not celebrate passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance bill and many of the other tactics by my fellow supporters of reproductive freedom.I have committed acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in opposition to racism, militarism and environmental desecration.

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Bill Clinton took his strongest stand on the abortion issue yesterday, saying his nominees to the Supreme Court and his running mate would have to support abortion rights.Though he claimed he doesn't like "litmus" tests for judicial nominees, the Democratic presidential candidate warned it would take only "one more Clarence Thomas" to strike down a woman's constitutional right to end her pregnancy.Justice Thomas, President Bush's most recent appointment to the court, joined three other justices Monday in urging that Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision making abortion a constitutional right, be overturned.

WASHINGTON -- Film stars, politicians and civil rights activists led an estimated half-million abortion-rights demonstrators through a sunny but blustery Washington yesterday in a massive rally that organizers hoped would propel the issue to the forefront of presidential and congressional campaigns."

SALT LAKE CITY -- Republicans have gathered here for a public debate today over abortion rights that is likely to be a sham battle.Informed sources said that President Bush's campaign manager, Robert Teeter, has told the supporters of abortion rights that the White House has decided the party will yield "not one inch" on previous platforms calling for a constitutional amendment to forbid abortion.The abortion-rights advocates also have been told that the party will not allow the issue to reach the national convention floor to be debated at Houston.

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.

ANNAPOLIS -- 1990 began with lobbying on the abortion issue, followed by filibustering on the abortion issue and ending with campaigning on the abortion issue. And now, after all that, the General Assembly convenes to find it still hasn't settled the most emotional question on any recent agenda.But this year, says Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Prince George's, things will be different. This time, he says, there will be no contentious filibuster, no surprises, no unresolved debates.

By a 29-18 vote, the state Senate today passed an abortion-rights bill and handed off the controversial issue to the House of Delegates.The bill would guarantee women in Maryland the same rights to have abortions they now have under the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, even if the high court modified that decision. The new law would repeal a more restrictive state abortion law that has been dormant since Roe vs. Wade.The bill, which could come before a House committee as early as tomorrow and the whole House next week, also requires in most cases that a girl under the age of 18 notify her parents before she can obtain an abortion.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An insurgent group of Republicans dedicated to inserting abortion-rights language into the 1992 platform convened yesterday to plot state-by-state strategies."

Assembly panel backs Maurer as treasurerState Treasurer Lucille Maurer passed a major hurdle in retaining her position yesterday when the General Assembly's Special Joint Committee on Selection of the State Treasurer voted to recommend her for a four-year term.The committee made its decision in favor of Mrs. Maurer, former Montgomery County delegate, after interviewing her and several other candidates, among them a former treasurer for the state of Maine. The state treasurer's annual salary is $100,000.

The Baltimore City Council is expected to make final amendments tonight to a bill that would require crisis pregnancy clinics that don't provide abortion or birth control referrals to post disclaimers or face a fine. Supporters of the measure, which would affect four city clinics, argue that it will prevent women from unwittingly receiving misleading or incomplete information. But anti-abortion groups say the bill unfairly targets centers that assist women with prenatal care, counseling and baby supplies.

The legislation proposed by Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to require crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide abortion or birth control services (or referrals for those services) to post a sign saying so has turned into a tempest in a teapot. Those clinics, which are nonprofits, say they're being singled out by abortion rights groups. Advocates from NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland say they've sent undercover interns to centers like those - including one in Baltimore - and found they were given inaccurate information about abortion, such as the myths that it causes cancer and infertility.

WASHINGTON -The Senate approved the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services, filling the final seat in President Barack Obama's Cabinet on the eve of his 100th day in office. Democrats had sought a quick vote on the Kansas governor as Congress moves ahead with health care reform this summer, but Republicans slowed Sebelius' advancement because of her record in favor of abortion rights. GOP procedural objections faded with the recent outbreak of swine flu and the threat of a global pandemic.

WASHINGTON -Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration will move today to rescind a controversial rule that allows health care workers to deny abortion counseling or other family planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials. The rollback of the so-called "conscience rule" comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it late last year in one of its final policy initiatives. The new administration's action seems certain to stoke ideological battles between supporters and opponents of abortion rights over the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and other medical workers to their patients.

HOUSTON -- Rudolph W. Giuliani challenged Republican Party orthodoxy yesterday, saying that his support for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights should not disqualify him from winning the party's presidential nomination. Republicans need to be tolerant of dissenting views on those issues if they want to hold the White House, he said. In a forceful summation of the substantive and political case for his candidacy, delivered to a conservative audience at Houston Baptist University, Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, acknowledged that his views on social issues are out of line with those of many Republican primary voters.

A shift in strategy of abortion opponents was critical: Exploit the perceived barbarity of the partial-birth abortion procedure and direct efforts to outlaw it. President Bush, though a disappointment to many conservatives, contributed to the fight by appointing John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court. And last week, the two justices did their part by helping swing the court toward a major restriction of abortion rights, a 5-4 decision that upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortion and extended the court's jurisdiction to "the life of the unborn."

ATLANTA -- If President Bush gets his way, the Supreme Court will vacate Roe v. Wade even before Mr. Bush vacates the White House. With the expected confirmation of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. - and depending on the vote of the moderately conservative Justice Anthony M. Kennedy - the right to a legal abortion could be struck down, leaving states to decide whether to keep abortion legal. Two years ago, the Center for Reproductive Rights estimated that 30 states would declare abortions illegal within a year of a high court decision overturning Roe. That makes it all the more important that progressives unite in a campaign to persuade sexually active Americans to use contraceptives.

If federal Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, opponents of abortion have high hopes that he will help craft decisions that outlaw or significantly limit the procedure. But even if the court eventually rules that the Constitution does not protect a woman's right to an abortion, the procedure will likely remain readily available in Maryland. Most legal scholars agree that if the court overturns Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion decision, each state would have the authority to decide whether the procedure is legal.

WASHINGTON -- To anyone here with a long memory, the Samuel Alito case recalls the saga of another federal judge, G. Harrold Carswell, nominated for the Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon 35 years ago. As Alito followed Harriet Miers, Carswell was picked as a replacement for an earlier choice found unacceptable by the Senate, Judge Clement Haynsworth of South Carolina. Like Alito, Carswell became a problem for the White House because of views he had expressed 20 years earlier.

EMILY's List, the biggest political action committee in the nation, announced this week that it is endorsing state Sen. Paula C. Hollinger in the 3rd Congressional District, a move that could steer tens of thousands of dollars to her campaign and give her an early advantage in the crowded race. The organization, which is dedicated to electing Democratic women who support abortion rights, praised Hollinger as a national leader in health care policy. "She has a proven base and a long list of legislative accomplishments and an ability to win tough races," said Martha McKenna, campaign services director of EMILY's List.