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Monday, Nov 23, 2009
In one of the more macabre state-level anti-abortion tactics, a bill was introduced to the Oklahoma Legislature that would require a woman considering an abortion to obtain a death warrant. "That bill would prohibit a physician from performing an 'execution' without obtaining a death warrant," says Anita Fream of Planned Parenthood of Oklahoma. "It's anybody's guess what that referred to. But we see between 15 and 20 anti-choice bills of various kinds every year, so you can't stay on top of them all. For example, we've had a bill proposed that would allow any minor who got an abortion without parental consent to sue the physician for malpractice without any statute of limitations, even though minors aren't required to get parental consent in Oklahoma."
Iowa is another state that is considering a bill that would require a woman to obtain permission from a judge before getting an abortion. Under this measure, the judge would appoint a guardian for the embryo or fetus and then conduct a mini-trial to determine if she should be forced to go forward with the pregnancy. There is no exception in this legislation for the health or even life of the woman. "That bill was so extreme, even the leadership [of the state legislature], which is anti-choice, didn't let the bill go forward," says Brenda Kole of NARAL Pro-Choice Iowa.
According to Planned Parenthood, 14 states have introduced 29 bills banning abortion outright.
"There has been a long-term strategy to make abortion illegal at the state level," says Nancy Northup, an attorney and the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City. "What people don't understand is that states want to have these laws on the books and ready to go when Roe is challenged again in the Supreme Court. Two states, Alabama and Delaware, have pre-Roe anti-abortion laws still on the books. And two more states, Louisiana and Utah, have passed laws to make abortion illegal since Roe. Those state laws, and any others that are passed in the meantime, will immediately go into effect should Roe be overturned."
Not all attempts to severely restrict abortion are quite so blatant. Back in Michigan, two court cases have already been fought over so-called partial-birth abortion laws, where the legislation was struck down both times on the grounds that the wording was so vague that abortions as early as 10 weeks could be restricted.
"If they would pass a narrowly tailored bill to ban a specific procedure," says Chelian, referring to intact dilation and extraction, "we probably wouldn't even challenge it. But they keep coming back with this vague language, so we go to court, and every time we win the case, we also get to collect attorney's fees from the state. It's the state that has to pay for the court challenge, not the anti-choice groups who push it through. It's such a waste of the taxpayers' money."
Most recently, the Michigan Legislature passed the Legal Birth Definition Act that -- in addition to including the vague partial-birth language yet again -- defines fetal viability so vaguely as to allow restrictions on abortion in the first trimester. Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed the bill, but a rarely used citizen's initiative will likely succeed in getting it enacted anyway. In Michigan, if enough signatures are collected in support of a bill, it must be taken up by the Legislature, and if it passes with a simple majority, it automatically becomes law. The governor cannot veto it. More than enough signatures have been gathered and submitted to the secretary of state for verification, which will be certified sometime this month. Since the legislation already passed the Michigan Legislature once, it is all but guaranteed to succeed again, only this time the governor will have nothing to say about it. Once again, the courts will have to be the backstop.
"The [proponents of the citizen's initiative] are following an avenue that is allowed to them under the law," says Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Gov. Granholm. "But any new law that is identical to the bill that the governor vetoed, which she did because it didn't have an exception for the health of the woman, will be struck down by the courts." The Michigan ACLU has already indicated it will bring a court challenge if the bill becomes law.
