Legislature Kills Two Abortion Bills Lawmakers Who Oppose Abortion Angry, Promise Drive For Initiative Next Year
The Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday killed both of the major abortion bills sought by social conservatives. Furious sponsors vowed to take their fight to the voters next year.
The House Rules Committee bottled up a Senate bill to require advance parental notification, and the Senate watered down a ban on so-called “partial-birth” abortion to the point where the sponsors voted against it and declared the issue dead for the year.
Sponsors of the ban said anti-abortion forces will meet next week to lay plans for an initiative to the 1999 Legislature. If lawmakers decline to pass it, voters would decide.
Backers of abortion-rights, jubilant over the turn of events, said the Legislature’s decision on both bills reflects the consensus of the state’s electorate to maintain abortion rights. State voters have upheld abortion laws on three separate occasions.
“This says people believe that these kinds of choices can best be made by a woman and her doctor,” said Sharon Foster, representing abortion-rights groups. “The Legislature has found a middle ground on this issue, and we’re very proud of their courage.”
Foes of abortion were bitterly disappointed in the one-two knockout.
“This is totally unacceptable,” said Rep. Mark Sterk, R-Veradale, sponsor of the “partial-birth” bill. “We will take it out of the hands of the Legislature and put it in the hands of the voters (through initiative).”
“The important thing is to keep bringing the issue up,” said Senate backer Dan Swecker, R-Rochester. “Unfortunately, what we saw today was politics as usual.”
Backers of the original bill, HB2395, lost their first round when senators refused to place the bill on the November ballot. The House, which approved the bill 58-40 earlier in the session, also had not managed to muster votes for a referendum.
That meant that even if the Senate approved the bill, it was doomed, because Democratic Gov. Gary Locke, a staunch defender of abortion rights, had said he would veto both of the session’s abortion bills.
Then Sen. Shirley Winsley, R-Fircrest, a moderate who supports abortion rights, sealed the bill’s demise by striking all of the House language and replacing it with a oneparagraph bill terming it a felony to perform the procedure on a viable fetus “except to protect the life or health of the mother.”
That language essentially restates current law and even has the support of Locke and abortion-rights groups. It was so popular that the final Senate vote was 41-8, with lawmakers from both sides of the issue climbing aboard.
Swecker said he had once counted enough votes to pass his bill, but that support evaporated when Winsley offered her language and Democrats quickly signed up.
The only people voting against the bill, ironically, were those most opposed to the procedure. They were Republicans Don Benton, Harold Hochstatter, Ray Schow, Val Stevens, Gary Strannigan, Swecker, James West and Joseph Zarelli.
Winsley said the abortion debate has been “divisive and sometimes ugly,” and she wanted to find a middle-ground alternative that would leave the matter to a woman and her doctor, while making it clear that the procedure is closely circumscribed.
“Your votes will either kill or save a life,” said an impassioned Swecker, adding that the substitute language “has no effect, period.”
Stevens, a leader of the newly formed Conservative Caucus, told reporters the legislation does not do with it purports to do.
“It does not stop any babies from dying,” she said.
Jerry Shaw, director of the Christian Coalition, said Winsley is “either one of the dumbest or most duplicitous senators. This just allows people to kill children.”
The House, meanwhile, quietly bottled up the other abortion bill of the session, a Senatepassed measure by Benton to require advance notification of a minor’s parents before she can get an abortion.
House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, an abortion foe, said the House had voted on the measure in each of the last three years and that he had told his caucus he wouldn’t keep bringing up the bill every year.
xxxx LEGISLATIVE NOTES The House approved a controversial measure designed to improve reading in Washington schools over Democratic complaints that it meddles with local control of teaching methods. The measure now goes to the Senate. The Republican-led House unanimously approved a measure giving judges more authority to confine for treatment offenders who are mentally ill and show a “likelihood of serious harm,” even if their crimes are misdemeanors. The bill goes back to the Senate. The Senate passed a bill late Thursday seeking to close a loophole in the government’s anti-smoking efforts by making tobacco possession by minors illegal. Current law prohibits stores from selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors, but it is silent on possession. The bill is expected to meet approval in the House.
Coming up With Thursday’s adjournment approaching, the House and Senate planned to convene today to consider bills.
Days in session Friday was day 54 of the 60-day session.