Copyright 1999 The Baltimore Sun Company
THE
BALTIMORE SUN
February 3, 1999, Wednesday ,FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL ,5B
LENGTH:
679 words
HEADLINE: Legislation would ban abortion
procedure; Rights advocates call measure unconstitutional'
BYLINE: SUN STAFF
BODY:
Reopening a contentious issue that led to the defeat of three moderate
lawmakers last fall, abortion opponents are renewing their efforts to ban a
controversial late-term abortion procedure in Maryland.
A bill
introduced this week by Sen. Larry E. Haines would outlaw what critics call
"partial- birth abortion," a procedure that many state
legislatures and Congress have sought to ban in recent years.
Abortion-rights advocates say the legislation is unconstitutionally
broad and is a veiled attempt to ban all abortions.
Although the General
Assembly has defeated similar measures in each of the past two years, Haines has
attempted to narrow the language of his bill to appease critics who want to
protect a woman's basic right to an abortion. Legislators said the bill's
prospects are unclear in a newly elected Assembly that will take up the issue
for the first time. But the two presiding officers support the measure, and
lawmakers on both sides of the issue said the bill could win narrow majorities
in the Senate and the House.
A spokesman for Gov. Parris N. Glendening
said the governor would veto the bill if it were to pass without significant
changes.
Haines' proposal, Senate Bill 194, would make it a crime to
perform a "partial-birth abortion and kill a human fetus" except in cases
necessary to save a mother's life.
The measure defines the procedure as
an abortion "in which the individual performing the abortion through a breach
presentation delivers a living fetus vaginally before killing the fetus and
completing the delivery."
The bill calls for punishment of up to two
years in prison and a $1,000 fine for someone who performs the
banned procedure.
Haines, a Carroll County Republican, said he added a
paragraph stating that the measure "may not be construed to interfere with the
decision of a woman to terminate a pregnancy" under Maryland's existing abortion
law.
"It means this act would not prohibit any other abortion procedures
that are currently permitted or legal in Maryland," he said.
Senate
President Thomas V. Mike Miller said that he had not reviewed the bill but that
he supports it in concept. House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. said he would
support the legislation if assured it would not curtail a woman's basic right to
an abortion.
But abortion-rights advocates said the language of the bill
is too broadly drawn.
"This bill is blatantly unconstitutional," Sen.
Paula C. Hollinger, a Baltimore County Democrat and a leader among
abortion-rights advocates. "The only reason it is out there is to interfere in a
woman's right to choose at every stage of pregnancy."
Hollinger said a
woman and her doctor should be allowed to decide on the most appropriate
abortion procedure. She said the procedure that the bill seeks to ban is used
rarely and generally only in the event of medical crisis.
Congress has
twice passed similar bills, but President Clinton has vetoed them. Twenty-eight
states have enacted similar laws, but courts have blocked their enforcement in
17.
Glendening has said that he would veto such a bill if it did not
include an exception to allow the procedure to protect the life or health of the
mother.
Ray Feldmann, the governor's spokesman, said Glendening's
position has not changed. "Without that language about the health of the mother,
the governor's position would be the same," he said.
Haines' bill last
year created perhaps the most politically significant roll-call vote of the
four-year term. After the measure won approval from a Senate committee, the
Senate voted 26-21 to send it back to the committee -- a rare move that, in
effect, killed the bill.
Among those voting to "recommit" the bill were
three moderate legislators, two Republicans and one Democrat, who said it was
drafted too broadly.
All three -- former Sens. F. Vernon Boozer, John W.
Derr and Donald C. Fry -- lost in last year's election, thanks in part to their
votes on the abortion bill. The three senators who took their places are
co-sponsors of this year's legislation.
LOAD-DATE: February 4, 1999
