Abortion debate still simmers 35 years after Roe vs. Wade

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008

Tuesday, Jan. 22, marks the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that struck down states’ abortion restrictions. But for Maryland, on an issue that continues to play out in states across the country and on the presidential election trail this year, legislators and advocates said that a 1992 referendum rights changed — if not settled — the debate.

‘‘The referendum really did change everything,” Del. Anne Healey said of Question 6 on the 1992 general election ballot, in which a majority of voters favored abortion rights. ‘‘The public has spoken on that side of things. But I also think we’ve moved beyond that question.”

Others said they are not about to move beyond Roe vs. Wade.

‘‘We will never stop, some of us, on the issues of protecting innocent life. So if anyone’s under the illusion that this will go away, it will not, because we believe it is a fundamental right-to-life issue,” said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Calvert, St. Mary’s).

At the 35-year mark, the landmark court decision has had far-reaching effects, said Angela A. Martin, president of Maryland Right to Life, which has chapters in 12 counties.

‘‘Roe vs. Wade has affected everything in our culture. It’s affected the way we think about children, sexual responsibility, even the way we think about death,” Martin said. ‘‘I think we’re just beginning to realize how seriously it has affected our culture, and it has to be turned around.”

Still, the state’s GOP caucus has not generally taken a position on the issue, instead leaving advocacy up to individual lawmakers.

It remains an uphill battle in Annapolis, where Democrats who oppose abortion concede that there are not enough votes for a state ban, should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

‘‘The issue is with the Supreme Court,” said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., who opposes late-term abortion and supports parental consent for minors. ‘‘The public in Maryland decided this issue with referendum and what legislators are doing around the country are talking about issues and trying to stay within the parameters of Supreme Court and recent federal court decisions.”

The referendum

The 1992 referendum was the last meaningful challenge to legal abortion in Maryland, Miller said.

The vote followed more than two years of debate. Supporters wanted the protections of Roe vs. Wade written into Maryland law amid concerns the Supreme Court would repeal its milestone decision.

In 1990, opponents filibustered for ‘‘eight days and nights.”

‘‘It was the worst time in my entire legislative career,” said Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George’s).

The law passed the next year, and Gov. William Donald Schaefer (D) signed it. Opponents petitioned it to referendum and the law was affirmed by voters, 62 percent to 38 percent.

The 1991 law allowed an abortion up until the time a fetus is able to survive outside the womb. It also allowed ending a pregnancy at any time in certain cases, provided exceptions to parental notification requirements and removed a requirement that physicians provide information about abortion alternatives.

Del. Maggie L. McIntosh was appointed to the House of Delegates one week after Marylanders voted in favor of abortion rights.

‘‘There was kind of a general feeling that ‘OK, the voters have spoken. We’re not going to take this up again,’” said McIntosh (D-Baltimore).

But every time the budget came to the floor in the years that followed, someone would push to remove funding for Medicaid coverage of abortions, she said.

‘‘We debated the pros and cons, although it was a debate on abortion,” she said.

After the referendum

Since the 1992 referendum, O’Donnell and his GOP colleagues have unsuccessfully proposed legislation that would eliminate taxpayer-funded abortions and that would require parents to be notified if a daughter sought to end a pregnancy.

Legislators have introduced just one bill on the issue so far this session. Introduced by Sens. Bryan W. Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) and Janet Greenip (R-Anne Arundel), it would require abortion facilities to provide women less than 20 years old the option of viewing an ultrasound.

And at least one abortion rights group has given the state high marks. NARAL Pro-Choice America gave Maryland an ‘‘A” in its 2008 report card on women’s reproductive rights. Only California and Washington scored higher.

The debate over abortion echoes in the debate over embryonic stem cell research, which some argue constitutes destroying a life. Lawmakers also compared the issue to the debate over same-sex marriage and the death penalty, in that they are perennial issues for the legislature.

The role for government now has become ‘‘getting involved and providing services to women who are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant,” said Healey (D-Prince George’s). Healey opposes abortion, and she opposes the death penalty.

To that end in 2005, Democrats for Life of America launched its 95-10 Initiative, which aims at reducing the number of abortions by 95 percent over 10 years.

The group is ‘‘taking this issue and saying this shouldn’t be a huge political issue. We can all come together and reduce the abortion rate and not make it a political football that we’re throwing back and forth,” said Kristen Day, the organization’s executive director.

The purpose of the initiative is ‘‘to give women real choices,” she said.

The group has helped to craft bills that are pending in Congress that seek funding to support women who forgo abortions but need assistance in raising their children.

The initiatives look at efforts at the state level, such as a toll-free number established in Michigan to put women in touch with resources from cribs to clothing, from job training to legal assistance. The abortion rate dropped 11 percent after the state established the number, Day said.

Abortion rates nationwide have dropped to their lowest level since 1974, according to a study released last week by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group focused on issues of sexual and reproductive health.

The study found that abortion rates dropped to 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2005, after a peak of 29.3 per 1,000 women in 1981. Overall, there were 1.2 million abortions in 2005, down from a high of 1.6 million in 1990.

Researchers did not look at why the rates declined.

Maryland, however, outpaced the national rate with 31.5 abortions per 1,000 women, according to the report.

‘‘Some of these women were from other states, and some Maryland residents had abortions in other states, so this rate may not reflect the abortion rate of state residents,” the report said.

Legislators need to keep abortion ‘‘safe, legal and rare,” Del. C. Sue Hecht said. And they must ‘‘make sure there is enough money for education to keep it rare.”

Funding is not at the level it is needed, said Hecht (D-Frederick).

‘‘We have to have good preventative products, good birth control, good access to information on what choices they have,” she said.

Since the referendum, the closest the legislature has come to an abortion ban was a 1999 bill that would have prohibited so-called partial-birth abortions. The bill passed the Senate on a 25-22 vote before failing, on a 68-70 vote, in the House.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on the procedure last year.

Abortion opponents have seen other victories at the federal level in recent years, including a limit on federal aid for abortions.

‘‘We are working incrementally to try to institute some protection for human life,” said Martin, the Maryland Right to Life president. ‘‘Regardless of how much we succeed, this is a battle that we are not going to step away from. In our view human lives are at stake. This is not a political issue. This is the most important issue of our time.”

The importance of the issue is not lost on lawmakers.

‘‘I pray on the issue every Sunday when I go to church,” said Miller, a practicing Catholic. ‘‘I have to drive past 500 little crosses in front of church as a reminder.”

As a legislator, Miller said he treats abortion like he treats capital punishment and same-sex marriage.

‘‘I know my position on it, but I don’t try to influence others,” he said.

Others are not as hesitant about crossing religion with politics.

‘‘I am a Baptist minister,” said Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr. (D-Baltimore County). ‘‘And as a Baptist minister I believe a fetus at any point has viability. And to terminate that viability at any point is tantamount to killing a person.”

To Burns, there is a race component to the issue.

‘‘As an African-American man, too many [abortions] are [of] African-American[s],” Burns said. ‘‘If another group was doing this we’d be crying bloody murder,” he said.

Remembering Roe

Abortion rights advocates see the anniversary as a reminder not to take their gains for granted.

‘‘The anniversary will be a bit of a celebration of women having gotten into the workplace and having been able to chart our futures,” said Terry O’Neill, president of Maryland’s National Organization for Women. ‘‘But definitely there are very powerful forces who are eager to roll the clock back.”

The 2007 federal Deficit Reduction Act increased the cost of birth control for low-income women.

For Ariana Brannigan Kelly, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, the 35th anniversary ‘‘means there is a whole generation of women who don’t remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade. And, in some ways that’s a good thing because to them, women have always had options.”

It can also be a bad thing when it comes to being vigilant against attempts to weaken the law, said Del. Elizabeth Bobo (D-Howard).

‘‘One of my biggest concerns is there is a generation of women coming along who don’t know the history of what it took to get this,” Bobo said.

As time has passed, there is hope for abortion opponents, O’Donnell said. Since the 1992 referendum, he said, a large number of people have changed their minds on abortion.

‘‘In ’92, for example, partial-birth abortion wasn’t really known about, but now even most of the abortion supporters are not for it,” he said. ‘‘That type of awakening has caused people to be maybe less strident in their defense.”

Still, House Speaker Michael E. Busch said he is does not expect Maryland to become a state that outlaws abortion.

The referendum showed ‘‘overwhelming” support of keeping abortion legal, said Busch (D-Anne Arundel).

‘‘I don’t see any initiative that’s going to change that,” he said. ‘‘If the opposition wants to petition that to a referendum, they are certainly welcome to do that.”

While the General Assembly is far from having the votes to ban abortion, it is not immune from further debate, lawmakers said.

‘‘In the last two or three years we have not had any activity and that is because, I feel, there is a very strong pro-choice majority in the House and Senate,” McIntosh said.

The issues could reignite, however, she said.

‘‘The candidacy of people like Mike Huckabee could in fact stimulate debate again on the issue of abortion,” McIntosh said, referring to the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate who has been particularly outspoken in his anti-abortion stance.

‘‘It’s been quiet for years,” she said. ‘‘I don’t expect it to be quiet forever.”

ssedam@gazette.net

Staff writers Alan Brody and Janel Davis contributed to this report.