Who won this round?
Baumann, Paul
CONNECTICUT ABORTION LAW WHO WON THIS ROUND? PROLIFE CLAIMS A LEGAL BEACHHEAD Connecticut Acts to Make Abortion a Statutory Right," read the New York Times headline. "Measure is Seen as...
...The center has a lot more in common than either fringe end," he said...
...Richard Tulisano, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, did not hesitate to call the law a compromise...
...But the counseling requirement stipulates that only trained professionals can be used, and the counseling must include strong encouragment that the minor inform her parents...
...But Connecticut remains a very strong prochoice state...
...Either they're lying to us now or they were lying before," he said of the prochoice lobby...
...The Pro-Life Council of Connecticut and its allies embraced a strategy of legislative compromise perhaps best articulated by Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard University...
...Still, some prolife advocates criticized the PLCC's support of the bill, especially the adoption of Roe's language on viability and its broad definition of "health...
...But he said a redrafted parental notification bill might pass in the next session of the General Assembly...
...Indeed, that minimal protection establishes a legal beachhead for the principle that human life must be legally respected...
...Doctors will be liable should a girl not receive proper counseling...
...As Ms...
...It's a very important victory," the April 28 story quoted Dawn Johnsen, legal director of the National Abortion Rights Action League...
...This has been a major effort, and it's been grassroots," Ms...
...Measure is Seen as Guarantee if High Court Strikes Down Roe v. Wade Decision...
...I don't see it as a stumbling block....the law will not bind future legislatures...
...The law also requires professional, nondirective counseling for girls fifteen and under...
...But he didn't see how the new statute would encumber prolife efforts in the future, or how it would be any worse than the present situation...
...Some prochoice advocates have argued that prolife legislators accepted abortion on demand as the norm when they voted for the new Connecticut law...
...Therefore it's not the type of legislation the archdiocese could explicitly support...
...A conscientious Catholic legislator may 'settle' for, say, prohibiting sex-selection abortions if that is all that is feasible in a given state," Ms...
...Smith, Connecticut's explicit prohibition of abortion after viability is such a beachhead...
...I'm pushing it, pro-choice doesn't like it...
...paul baumann Paul Baumann is associate editor of Commonweal.n is associate editor of Commonweal...
...Prochoice spokesmen have minimized the counseling requirement, arguing that unbiased options counseling is standard procedure in abortion clinics...
...The bill was in fact the work of prolife legislators, and was opposed by choice groups until the moment it passed, she said...
...After viability, generally twenty-four weeks, abortion is prohibited except to "preserve the life or health of the mother...
...The position of the archdiocese is perhaps best expressed by quoting Thomas More, said Barry: "What you cannot turn to good you must make as little bad as you can...
...That will reform and redefine the debate...
...I think the last thing that prolife forces want to do is enshrine Roe v. Wade in legislation....They should have tried to impose real restrictions in the final four months...
...The practical impact of the viability rule could go either way, he said...
...Prohibiting abortions after viability puts pressure on the physicians and will discourage late abortions, Ward continued...
...If anything, it's been a major breakthrough for us in the state of Connecticut...
...The state now says an unborn child can be protected...
...That was a major political disaster...
...Smith referred to the Idaho legislature's recent passage of a much stricter anti-abortion law, which was subsequently vetoed by the governor...
...But the archdiocese did not come out for this bill, he added...
...I think the Connecticut bishops made a major mistake...
...This is the first state law that says a woman has a right to choose an abortion, not just under the Constitution, but under state law...
...But her group was not interested in throwing women who've had abortions into jail...
...Prolife support for the bill is pragmatic but not apologetic...
...Viability is not defined, nor is viability testing required...
...There's a burden on them...
...Frankly, it's a judgment call," Ward said, when asked if it was an error to put Roe's formulations into state statutes...
...The Connecticut statute, which repealed century-old but inactive laws making abortion a criminal offense, guarantees a woman's right to an abortion before the fetus is viable...
...Smith said...
...Both prolife and prochoice groups agree that the language, adopted from the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, essentially means abortion-on-demand...
...Smith said...
...Doctors are going to have their malpractice insurance on the line...
...Prolife finally has something in law," he added...
...Abortion-rights groups had sought a law that would prohibit interference in abortion at any time, and opposed any law requiring counseling for minors...
...it's for any reason at all...
...In kind of a benign way we encourage people to have abortions because it's cheaper...
...That's not quite what the prochoice position was six months ago....They put a real spin on it...
...Confusingly for many readers, however, the news accounts reported that prolife groups supported the bill...
...Tulisano, who described himself as prolife, saw several positive developments...
...Opposing mandatory counseling for minors was something abortion-rights groups could not justify...
...should do the same...
...I am not so sure," Tulisano said when asked if the bill was the prochoice victory widely claimed...
...Ward considers the new law a setback for advocates of abortion on demand...
...Smith did, Ward noted that Connecticut's new law is very different from the bill orginially supported by the Connecticut Coalition for Choice, the state's principal abortion-rights lobby...
...An informed consent requirement for all women seeking abortions also is something Tulisano supports...
...Robert Ward, an attorney and a Republican state representative, was a member of the Judiciary Committee that drafted the law...
...Prochoice is shooting crap that it stays the same...
...Missouri's law, upheld by the Supreme Court last year which requires viability testing and prohibits state-funded hospitals from performing abortions, is a model to follow...
...The people from prochoice have redefined what choice means...
...But the most important thing...
...How could prolife groups, or the Catholic archdiocese of Hartford, reconcile themselves to such a self-evidently pro-choice law...
...Smith, who grows agitated when discussing what she calls "bias" in the media, took pains to explain the prolife aspects of the Connecticut law...
...But it's only a first step...
...So I see very little difference...
...Connecticut's General Assembly had rebuffed all prolife initiatives since 1973...
...For example, both sides agreed that criminal penalties were inappropriate...
...European countries provide social benefits that encourage women to have children...
...He pointed to European abortion laws as examples the U.S...
...Tulisano hopes future legislation will impose increasing restrictions on abortion as the fetus develops...
...In drafting the bill, Tulisano concentrated on what the two sides could agree on...
...Daniel Degnan, S.J., former dean of Seton Hall University Law School, expressed skepticism over the tactical wisdom of the Connecticut prolife forces...
...Glendon has written...
...The majority of the women who work in this office have had abortions," she added...
...They did defeat a parental notification amendment to the bill...
...Pushing for such laws now means "you'll accomplish nothing...
...Most experts estimate that 99 percent of Connecticut's twenty thousand annual abortions occur before viability...
...We are politically realistic," she said...
...But legal liability will reshape the way things are done, Tulisano said...
...But it is not seen as a victory for abortion rights, either...
...You try to save as many as you can...
...He has long worked for prolife legislation...
...I think that's what was important the right of government to intervene...
...Some prolife groups have attacked the PLCC for its support of decriminalizarion...
...I'm shooting crap that it goes downward...
...Most Connecticut prolife spokesmen think such an agenda is simply unrealistic...
...Echoing the PLCC's position, he said future legislation should seek to strengthen the current bill...
...is that we've never focused on the unborn child in Connecticut...
...Thomas Barry, secretary to Archbishop John Whealon and prolife director of the Hartford archdiocese, agreed the law was "essentially a step in the right direction...
...You have extremists in every movement," Ms...
...Most prolife people feel the same way...
...But restricting abortion isn't enough, he added...
...The Rev...
...That's what happens when extremists dominate, she said...
...should follow...
...Putting restrictions of any kind on abortion, such as requiring counseling for minors, is an important step forward...
...According to Ms...
...Abortion-rights activists hailed the new Connecticut law...
...The choice groups have given this an amazing spin-off in the media," said Susan Smith, legislative administrator for the Pro-Life Council of Connecticut (PLCC), the state's principal prolife lobby...
...We never get involved in the alternative a social system that enourages women to choose life...
...Connecticut's statutory "silence" about abortion meant anything was permitted...
...We believe in restrictive legislation...
...Barry described the law as basically supportive of abortion...
...There can't be any second-guessing," he said...
...Physicians are to determine viability...
...And I think [they] know that...
...The U.S...
...Arguing that a state law prohibiting abortion after viability is a prochoice victory is odd, he said...
...That's a deliberate misrepresentation of the views of the prolife legislators," Ward said...
...I think we can now refocus the debate...
...Connecticut is still a strong prochoice state," he said, and there is little prospect that abortion will be outlawed...
...Ward said a turnaround of 40 to 50 percent of Connecticut's legislators would be required to challenge abortion before viability...
...At this time, prolife groups in Connecticut think political compromise is the most responsible course to follow in their battle against legalized abortion...
...You have to remember that Connecticut has been an unrestrictive state, and from that point of view it's a compromise...
...But removing the nineteenth-century statutes that made abortion a criminal offense laws which were already ruled unconstitutional by the Roe decision was not a problem for the PLCC...
...How was that possible...
...Prolife groups admit that the law's specific restrictions are minimal, and the immediate impact on the availability of abortion will be slight, if not nil...
...Health is defined so broadly by Roe v. Wade...
Vol. 117 • June 1990 • No. 12
