ABORTION DEBATE RECALLED; ARGUMENTS LINGER 10 YEAR AFTER FIGHT

Ten years ago this month the Cape Girardeau City Council rescinded a month-old ordinance aimed at regulating a local abortion clinic, ending a 12-month clash over the issue.

The vote in November 1982 came after the operator of the clinic, Dr. Bolivar Escobedo, threatened to sue the city over the ordinance. The memories of the events remain vivid in the minds of council members and others at the vanguard of the debate.

So also remains the bitterness among pro-life advocates who failed in their attempt to get the city to regulate the clinic.

Thomas L. Meyer, who helped form the pro-life organization Life-Boat Crusaders for Life, was its primary spokesman and a key player in getting the city to finally adopt an ordinance to regulate the clinic, situated at 891 N. Kingshighway.

He said Sunday he's still hurt by the council's action at that November 1982 meeting.

"For 12 months, twice a month, I met with the city council pleading with them to pass an ordinance to regulate the clinic," Meyer said. "After we rewrote it several times, we finally got it approved only to have it repealed after Escobedo took legal action against the city."

Meyer said pro-life advocates asked the city to establish regulations to assure that the clinic complied with city health standards. He admits the secondary goal was to place "roadblocks" in the way of the clinic's operation.

"The disappointing thing was that the political arm of our city passed the ordinance and then the leader of that arm chose under pressure to vacate the ordinance," Meyer said.

The leader of the council at the time, former Mayor Howard Tooke, said Sunday the council had no real choice in the matter.

He said the city council wasn't willing to challenge a lawsuit when they knew the federal courts had "stacked the cards" against them.

"That hurt me as much as anything," said Meyer. "I have tremendously high regard for Mr. Tooke, but I think about what he did in such a misguided manner and I just don't understand it."

But the former mayor said the council was in a no-win situation. He said the ordinance was passed as a compromise the council thought both sides could live with.

The ordinance essentially would have upheld already existing state abortion statutes, but would have included some local regulation of the clinic's operation.

But when Escobedo threatened legal action, the council voted to repeal the ordinance.

"There was no use continuing a big controversy on it," Tooke said. "As it turned out, both sides were mad at the city.

"The right-to-life people said we promised them something and didn't deliver, and the right to choice people were mad that we passed the ordinance in the first place."

The anger is still evident in Meyer as he recalls the 10-year-old arguments against the ordinance.

"I don't give a damn what they say about the Constitution of the United States," he said. "When you murder something and it's an innocent, defenseless human being, it's still murder.

"They weren't interested in preservation of life."

Loretta Schneider was a strong pro-life advocate when she was on the city council in 1982. She also said Sunday that there was little the council could do to preserve the short-lived ordinance.

She consistently voted for the ordinance, and in October and September 1982 she and council member Cecilia Sonderman were the only two to vote against repealing the measure.

"It was not a case of more people on the council that were pro-abortion, it was more a matter of us passing an ordinance when we knew what the outcome was going to be," Schneider said.

"But I felt like if us passing the ordinance would help make a statement, I felt that's what we should do."

Schneider said she wasn't just voting her own conscience, but was trying to reflect public opinion on the matter. She said abortion is at the core of a larger issue: the effort by the community to define and maintain moral standards.

"I think 10 years ago, we felt like it was our duty to respond to the issue in a way that reflected how we thought the citizens felt," Schneider said. "We read about this and hear about it and like to think that's somebody else's decision to make. But we need to start at the local level."

Tooke said he also remembers that the council wanted to at least partly satisfy perceived community pressure to regulate abortions in Cape Girardeau.

During the 12-month debate over the measure, the council meetings often were packed with hundreds of people the majority pro-life supporters.

"We were trying to respond to a great amount of public opinion on both sides of an issue, and I think that's what politics is all about, particularly local politics," Tooke said.

"I don't know that I regret it, although in hindsight, it was probably a mistake to pass an ordinance and then rescind it. But it was an attempt to respond to what we thought was public opinion in the city. It just wouldn't work."

The former mayor said the abortion debate illustrated the problem a city government has when it attempts to "straddle the fence" on a volatile issue.

"What we wound up with one side said didn't go far enough and the other side said went too far," he said. "You're better off if you can take a position and stick by it."

Tooke said the city probably would have been better off to stay out of the abortion fray completely.

But Schneider disagreed. She said such debates are the essence of politics and elected officials must be willing to face them head on.

"In some sense, even though we didn't pass the ordinance, it gave people a chance to express their views on the issue," she said. "I don't regret it at all.

"Too often you get to these really tough issues and it's easier to not let people know how you really feel."

The abortion clinic ceased performing abortions regularly in the late 1980s, and has since closed altogether. Escobedo now is embroiled in a legal complaint filed by the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts.

The eight-count complaint accuses the doctor of misconduct and negligence regarding abortions he performed in Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.

Schneider said she hopes now that the clinic is closed, the city won't have to deal with the issue again.

And if someone did try to open another abortion clinic here?

"Let it happen, and you'll see me at the forefront of the fight again," said Meyer. "I'm getting a little old for this, but I'd be there.

"If you don't support your moral standards and you don't fight for them, you're nothing."