Abortion Rights

Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who has pledged to veto legislation that restricts the right to abortion, and Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., a longtime advocate of abortion rights, yesterday won the endorsement of Choice PAC, a group dedicated to electing candidates who favor keeping abortion legal.Since its formation in May, Choice PAC has raised about $40,000 for legislative candidates who support abortion rights. This week, the group decided to make endorsements in the governor's and attorney general's races as well.

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.

Abortion-rights activists, who had been hoping for several big victories, instead were stunned by losses in the Maryland House and Senate last night, though they retained majorities in both houses.Despite the defeats -- including some in districts they had considered safe -- the advocates of legal abortion said they thought they still would have the votes for passage of an abortion-rights bill in the next legislative session. The task, however, probably will not be as simple as they had hoped.

Few organizations have done more for women's healththan both Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a leading supporter of breast-cancer treatment and research, and Planned Parenthood, the country's top reproductive health care provider and advocate. To see the two organizations now at war is not only upsetting to many women's health supporters but all the more tragic because it's so unnecessary. The most charitable interpretation of events would suggest that Komen was duped by anti-abortion advocates into cutting off support for breast exams at Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country.

ANNAPOLIS -- Saying the Maryland Senate is still one vote shy of the number needed to shut down an anti-abortion filibuster, a major abortion-rights group endorsed 15 candidates yesterday for election to the General Assembly Nov. 6.Abortion-rights candidates won several big victories -- including wins in four hard-fought Senate races -- in the September primary. But Karyn Strickler, head of the Maryland affiliate of the National Abortion Rights Action League, said abortion-rights backers still need to elect two sympathetic senators to guarantee the 32 votes needed to cut off a filibuster.

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."

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.

TCThough they won four big victories in Tuesday's primaries, abortion-rights activists say they'll have to survive November's general election before they can declare the Senate filibuster-proof on the abortion issue.Abortion-rights groups need 32 votes -- two-thirds of the Senate -- to cut off extended debate like the eight-day filibuster that led to the death of an abortion-rights bill last March. In that parliamentary battle, sponsors of the abortion bill fell one vote shy of breaking the filibuster and forcing a vote on their bill.

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.

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."

Thousands of bundled-up abortion opponents rallied Monday on the National Mall, encouraged by recent federal and state GOP wins and hopeful about proposed measures that would further tighten bans on federal funding for abortions. The March for Life, which marks Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that overturned state laws banning abortion, tends to focus on mobilizing the young, and Catholic high schools, youth groups and colleges were out in force. For the first time, a morning concert and Mass held at Verizon Center were expanded to the D.C. Armory, where a parallel event was held.

Nearly two decades ago, members of the Maryland General Assembly approved a law clarifying a woman's right to an abortion. It permits late-term abortions to save the life or health of the mother or when the fetus is seriously abnormal or deformed. This action was not taken lightly — or without considerable debate and public scrutiny. Lawmakers were concerned that this basic right to choose might be denied women if the Supreme Court ever overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

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.

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.

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.

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 -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.