In statehouses, anti-abortion forces push for new restrictions

In a methodical, step-by-step strategy, anti-abortion legislators are working in statehouses around the country to make it harder for women to get an abortion.

Among the measures introduced this year are proposals to set a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, require parental notification for minors, make it a crime to injure a fetus, and ban state funding of abortions.

"It's not so much the individual bills as how they all connect," said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "If they take away funding, take away minors' rights, make it difficult for providers to stay in business, they can make it almost impossible for the most vulnerable women -- young women, poor women, geographically isolated women -- to get abortions."

For anti-abortion groups, the ultimate goal is getting the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide. But in the short term, activists on both sides see state legislatures as a critical battleground.

"You can do a lot more in the legislatures than on the federal level right now," said Joseph Giganti of the American Life League. "Ultimately the question of abortion will be settled by the states, so it's important to have strong pro-life legislators working toward that goal."

Some recent tactics provoked an outcry -- pink plastic "fetus dolls" distributed by a Virginia lawmaker to his colleagues; a proposal in Georgia to require a "death warrant" before an abortion can proceed.

Calls for waiting period

One of the proposals getting serious consideration in several states calls for a 24-hour waiting period, with doctors required to advise women about alternatives and potential complications.

Eighteen states adopted such measures in previous years; West Virginia legislators approved one last month. Similar bills are pending elsewhere, including Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona and Washington.

"For any major decision in life, if you can't sleep on it overnight, you shouldn't do it," said Georgia state Sen. Don Balfour, who helped the Republican-controlled chamber approve a waiting-period bill two weeks ago.

The measure may not survive Georgia's House, where some majority Democrats depict it as harassing rather than helping women.

Tim Stanley, an abortions-rights advocate in Minnesota, said mandatory waiting periods "imply that women are incapable of thinking for themselves."

In Oregon, Minnesota and Montana, anti-abortion lawmakers have tried a relatively new tactic -- proposing that doctors be ordered to tell women who are considering an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy that the fetus might suffer pain.

A "fetal pain" bill won approval in the Montana House, but four lawmakers changed their minds, helping kill the bill last month. The Oregon measure, likely to be vetoed if it reaches Gov. Ted Kulongoski, would require doctors to offer to anesthetize the fetus before an abortion.

Texas lawmakers are a considering a proposal to establish criminal penalties for causing the death of a fetus in, say, an assault or a drunken-driving accident. The bill would extend the definition of "individual" to include "an unborn child at every stage of gestation."

"It's part of a patient, long-term strategy -- a state-by-state campaign to accord fetuses legal recognition," said Elizabeth Cavendish, legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The aim is to alter the legal landscape for whenever Roe v. Wade is revisited."

Among other proposals:

-- Utah representatives voted to ban all state funding for abortion, but the legislative session ended last week before the Senate acted on the bill.

-- In Kansas, a House committee has endorsed a bill setting safety standards for abortion clinics. Abortion-rights groups said the goal is to impose unaffordable costs.

In Georgia, there was heated reaction when Rep. Bobby Franklin proposed requiring a "death warrant" signed by a judge before a doctor could perform an abortion. Ebony Barley of Georgia's Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League called it "the most grotesque bill we've seen."

A bill in South Carolina proposes a monument outside the Statehouse memorializing "unborn children who have given their lives because of legal abortion." It would be a 6-foot statue of a fetus.

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On the Net:

NARAL: http://www.naral.org

National Right to Life Committee: http://www.nrlc.org