ANNAPOLIS – Anti-abortion legislators shifted attitude Tuesday, going on the offensive to try to push through legislation supported by their Bi-Partisan Pro-Life Caucus.
Three bills set for Senate committee hearings Wednesday top their agenda.
The caucus favors the Women’s Health Protection Act, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2004 and a bill altering requirements on parental permission for minors seeking abortions.
At the caucus news conference, children aged 5 to 16 and their parents lined the first two rows of the joint hearing room, holding signs in support of the bills, as part of a field trip to the capital by the Traditions of Roman Catholic Homes.
The Women’s Health Protection Act, filed by Sen. Janet Greenip, R-Anne Arundel, and Delegate William Frank, R-Baltimore County, would give the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene the power to regulate clinics providing abortion services in the same way that they regulate other surgical clinics.
“Most women are shocked to learn that (clinics) are not (regulated),” said Greenip, who wants abortion providers to screen women for a number of risk factors – including gonorrhea or chlamydia infection, family history of breast cancer, a history of prior psychological illness, moral or religious convictions against abortion, and lack of support from a partner or parents – that might adversely affect the procedure’s outcome.
“If the doctor doesn’t know the patient – and most of these doctors have never met them – it is important for them at least to find out the health of the woman before performing the procedure,” said Greenip. “Having complete information does not interfere with a woman’s right to choose.”
Doctors who provide abortions would have to carry at least $2 million in malpractice insurance, the bill said.
The health department would also have to keep an “abortion information depository,” with information on adverse effects, standard of care information and statistics on monetary awards for civil actions against abortion providers.
“It is an all-inclusive attempt to regulate and restrict access to abortion,” said John Nugent, director of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, calling the bill “everything but the kitchen sink.”
A physician providing an abortion has to meet standard-of-care requirements, Nugent said, including providing counseling and informed consent.
“She wants to add to the existing informed consent procedure some risk factors not based on science,” said Nugent, who said Greenip hasn’t demonstrated a public health need for further regulation.
Greenip also failed to consider gestation – the facility needs for a first-trimester abortion are much different from those for a woman in her 17th week of pregnancy – Nugent said.
The second bill, filed by Sen. Nancy Jacobs, R-Harford, and Delegate Carmen Amedori, R-Carroll, requires a judge, rather than a doctor, decide whether to grant a waiver of parental notification for a minor seeking an abortion.
“This bill is very important to our children, to make sure they are safe when they go for a surgical procedure, such as abortion,” said Amedori.
“It is a conflict of interest to have a person deciding if a child is mature enough to have an abortion when that provider stands to gain from that child getting an abortion,” said Jacobs.
“Sometimes, you don’t have the votes to get everything you want,” she added. “If we have to do a compromise to see less children in this state murdered, then I’ll do a compromise.”
Opponents have said the bill is an access issue, and that young women who don’t involve a parent have good reasons for their decisions.
The third bill bans human cloning, or the asexual reproduction of a human embryo, and follows the lead of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“If the U.S. Senate doesn’t go through with this, it will need to be done on a state-by-state basis in order to stop the slippery slope of cloning human life,” said sponsoring Sen. Andrew P. Harris, R-Baltimore County.
The ban only goes after the artificial making of life, not stem cell research, said Delegate George W. Owings III, D-Calvert, who sponsored the House bill.
The felony will be punished by a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. An optional civil fine of at least $1 million can be assessed.
Gov. Robert L. Erhlich has not taken a position on the bills, but the caucus hopes he will sign them if they pass.
“We’re hopeful,” said Jacobs, “we have no confirmation, but some of us feel in our heart that he will.”
– 30 – CNS-3-09-04