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Volume III, Number 24 / July 23, 1999
Important Dates
July 29
House scheduled to debate Foreign Operations Appropriations bill
July 30
House Constitution Subcommittee markup of federal feticide bill
August 3-September 7
Congressional August recess
CONTACT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE
Urge them to support funding for family planning services at home and abroad without damaging restrictions.
Moving toward the Responsible Choices Agenda
Goal: Increase services that prevent unintended pregnancy by strengthening international family planning programs and guaranteeing equity in insurance coverage for family planning.
Goal: Ensure access to abortion by guaranteeing the ability to exercise the right to choose for everyone
House Votes To Keep UNFPA Funding In State Department Bill
In a stunning victory for supporters of international family planning, the House voted 221198 on July 20th to restore funds for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). An amendment offered by Rep. Chris Smith (RNJ) would have cut off funding to UNFPA unless it ceased its program in China or President Clinton certifies that there no longer were any forced abortions performed in China. Reps. Tom Campbell (RCA) and Ben Gilman (RNY) proposed language to replaced the Smith amendment (known as a "seconddegree" amendment). It provides $25 million for UNFPA, but it requires that the U.S. contribution be maintained in a separate account and that for every dollar spent in China, a dollar is subtracted from the U.S. contribution. UNFPA's pilot voluntary family planning program operating in 32 counties in China is funded at $5 million, so the actual U.S. contribution to UNFPA will be $20 million.
This victory by a substantial margin is the first time in more than two years that Smith's attempts to cripple international family planning programs has been stymied in the House. Significant grassroots and grass tops efforts by Planned Parenthood affiliates helped sway the 20 votes needed to reverse Congress's move last year to cut off funding to the agency.
In response to the vote, PPFA President Gloria Feldt said, "The vote, the first strong prochoice vote of the legislative session, not only will make a profound difference in the lives and health of women and families internationally, it will restore U.S. leadership in international family planning. The House has put the lives and needs of women above politics. I am delighted to see common sense overcome rigid ideology in Congress. ...Planned Parenthood will continue to work strenuously on behalf of the fundamental right of each individual, throughout the world, to make responsible choices about his or her fertility, regardless of income, marital status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or residence."
All those voting for the Campbell/Gilman substitute should be thanked. The battle, however, is not over. We are likely to revisit this issue as well as the global gag rule at some time during consideration of the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill (see story on page 2).
Appropriations Process In High Gear
House Appropriations Committee Marks Up Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill
More good news was to be had on July 20th, when the full House Appropriations Committee marked up the FY 2000 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (DCA) offered an amendment identical to the Campbell amendment that had been approved in the House earlier in the day (see lead story). The amendment was approved 3026 (vote below). Again, the people who voted to support family planning should be thanked.
PELOSI AMENDMENT
JULY 20, 1999
| Yea
(prochoice) (30) A. Boyd (DFL) Clyburn (DNC) Cramer (DAL) DeLauro (DCT) Dicks (DWA) Dixon (DCA) Edwards (CTX) Farr (DCA) Granger (RTX) Hobson (ROH) Hoyer (DMD) Jackson (DIL) Kaptur (DOH) Kilpatrick (DMI) Kolbe (RAZ) Lowey (DNY) Meek (DFL) Miller (RFL) Moran (DVA) Obey (DWI) Olver (DMA) Pastor (DAZ) Pelosi (DCA) Porter (RIL) Price (DNC) Regula (ROH) RoybalAllard (DCA) Sabo (DMN) Serrano (DNY) Visclosky (DIN) |
| Nay
(AntiChoice) (26) Alderholt (RAL) Blunt (RMO) Bonilla (RTX) Callahan (RAL) Cunningham (RCA) DeLay (RTX) Dickey (RAR) Emerson (RMO) Frelinghuysen (RNJ) Istook (ROK) Kingston (RGA) Knollenberg (RMI) Latham (RIA) Lewis (RCA) Nethercutt (RWA) Northup (RKY) Packard (RCA) Rogers (RKY) Skeen (RNM) Sununu (RNH) Taylor (RNC) Tiahrt (RKS) Wamp (RTN) Wicker (RMS) Wolf (RVA) Young (RAK) |
While no damaging amendments were offered in committee, it is expected that Rep. Chris Smith (RNJ) will offer his antiUNFPA language when the bill is considered by the full House. It also is possible that someone could offer the global gag rule language. That language would prohibit nongovernmental organizations that talk about the abortion policies of the countries in which they work from receiving U.S. international family planning funds even if they use their own funds to discuss abortion.
Rep. Joseph Pitts (RPA) also is expected to offer as an amendment, his proposed legislation that would transfer $100 million from international family planning to child survival programs.
District Of Columbia Appropriations Moves Out Of Committee Without Abortion Debate
Congress has power not only over the budget of the District of Columbia, but through the budgetary process it also makes major decisions about how the District is run, despite the existence of home rule. Because of this, for many years, the District of Columbia has been barred from providing abortion services to lowincome residents, even with its own funds. No attempt was made during the July 20th markup in the Appropriations Committee to remove this restriction. It is expected that Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DDC) will offer a motion to remove the ban on the use of local funds for abortion services when the bill comes to the floor.
Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Markup Delayed Because Of Funding Caps
The House leadership failed in negotiations to find enough funds to develop a LaborHHSEducation Appropriations bill that would garner enough votes for passage, so the scheduled July 21st subcommittee markup of the bill was postponed. No new date for consideration was scheduled. Appropriations Chair Don Young (RAK) is reported in the July 22 CQ Monitor to have said that he does not expect the bill to be marked up at least until next week. Other reports say that it is unlikely that the House Appropriations subcommittee will be able to mark up the bill until after Labor Day, when the House returns from the August recess.
Rep. Forbes's Move To Democrats Puts Appropriations Committee In Flux
When Rep. Michael Forbes (NY) announced on July 17th that he was switching parties from Republican to Democrat, he was forced to give up his Republican seat on the House Appropriations Committee. As a reward for his party switch, the Democrats have given him one of their seats on the Appropriations Committee. Since the Republican House leadership is not likely to give the Democrats an additional seat on the Appropriations Committee, the current Democratic members have agreed to rotate off one month at a time so that Forbes may keep the seat. In announcing his decision to switch parties, Forbes described the House Republican leadership as "extremist"; however, he has consistently voted against profamily planning and prochoice language. Many of the current Democrats on the committee support family planning and reproductive choice.
On the Republican side, no decision has been made about who will replace Forbes on the committee, but none of the members who have been named support family planning programs or reproductive rights. One of the leaders of the opposition to these programs, Rep. J.C. Watts (ROK), will take the seat until a permanent replacement can be named.
House Subcommittee On The Constitution Holds Hearing On Feticide Bill
On July 20th, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on the newly introduced "Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 1999 (H.R. 2436). The bill was introduced by Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). According to a story in the July 22nd edition of the Washington Times, Graham said, "My intent is to protect women, protect the unborn , and hold criminals accountable,"
This bill is similar to "feticide" legislation that has passed in several states. Under the bill, anyone who causes the death of or bodily injury to a "child who is in utero at the time the conduct takes place" may be charged with a crime separate from the crimes charged for harm against the pregnancy women. Exempted from the bill is any conduct involved in a "consensual" abortion, anyone treating the pregnant woman or her fetus, and the woman herself.
Supporters of reproductive choice maintain that this bill is a thinly veiled attempt to give fetuses rights separate from the woman in order to further restrict or outlaw abortion. "The concept of the fetus as an entity with legal rights, independent of the woman, makes it possible to create future legal rights that could be used against the interests of the mother," the Times reports Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) saying.
A National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) press release on the hearing in which the NRLC bragged that it "assisted in the drafting of the measure and strongly supports it" bolstered this belief. Another hint that there may be a hidden agenda in such legislation comes from the testimony of one of the majority's witnesses. In his testimony, Hadley Arkes, a law professor at Amherst College said, "My own hope is that the significance of this legislation may be enlarged, or come to its fuller meaning, when unborn children can become in themselves the objects of federal protection: The deprivation of `life' without due process of law, already contained in the Constitution, could be understood, once again, to apply to all human beings, as it was understood at the time of our Founding. "Yet, as everyone knows, we are distant from that state of affairs right now. ...But that for another day [sic]"
The subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the bill on July 30th.
Republican Senators Want Americans United Investigated Over Vote Guide Campaign
Six Republican senators Sens. Sam Brownback (KS), Paul Coverdell (GA), Jesse Helms (NC), Don Nickles (OK), Jeff Sessions (AL) and Strom Thurmond (SC) – have asked Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to investigate Americans United for Separation of Church and State. According to the July 20th edition of the CQ Daily Monitor, in a letter sent to the attorney general, the senators demanded that Justice Department determine if Americans United is guilty of "intimidating people of faith into not participating in the political process."
What Americans United did was to send warnings to church leaders around the country that they could possibly jeopardize their taxexempt status if they allowed the Christian Coalition voter guides to be distributed at their churches. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United, said that through the Internet, email and other means, the organization has contacted churches around the country with the information. He maintained that the senators are acting at the bidding of the Christian Coalition that recently dropped its fight with the IRS to receive taxexempt status.
Date For Special Election To Fill Rep. Brown's Seat Announced
California Gov. Gray Davis has announced that the special election to fill the seat of the late Rep. George Brown will be held on September 21st. If a run off is necessary, it will be held on November 16th. Brown, a longtime supporter of family planning and reproductive rights died on July 15th after a long illness.
IN THE STATES State Legislative Update
Virginia's So-Called "Partial Birth" Abortion Law Enjoined
On July 16th, the Federal District Court in Richmond, VA, permanently enjoined Virginia's ban on so-called "partial birth abortion." The court ruled that the statute was unconstitutional because it banned D & E abortions, the most common and safest methods of abortion in the second trimester, and therefore, created an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion. The court also ruled that the statute was unconstitutional because it lacked an exception to protect the woman's health and was too vague to give physicians fair warning of what conduct was prohibited.
The same court previously issued a preliminarily injunction, but the injunction was stayed by a single judge of the Fourth Circuit.
PP of the Blue Ridge, Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, and PP of Metropolitan Washington, were among the plaintiffs. They were represented by lawyers for PPFA's Public Policy Litigation and Law and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.
Federal Court Blocks Enforcement Of Louisiana Abortion Ban
On July 13th, a federal judge in New Orleans temporarily enjoined enforcement of a Louisiana law that would have banned abortions after 22weeks gestation except to preserve the life or health of the woman or in cases of rape or incest. The law also requires that abortions performed after 22 weeks be done in a hospital, where every effort must be made to protect the life of the fetus.
The temporary restraining order issued by Judge Sarah Vance will remain in effect until August 18th, when District Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. is scheduled to hold a hearing on a preliminary injunction.
Florida Health Chief Wants $4 Million More to Push Abstinence-Only Message
Robert Brooks, secretary of the Florida Department of Health has asked Gov. Jeb Bush and the board of the state's welfaretowork program for an additional $4 million for abstinenceonly education in order to reduce teen pregnancy. Brooks claimed that he did not intend to cut family planning funds, but was seeking to take the money from a reserve of $175 million that, according to the July 18th edition of The Orlando Sentinel, has been saved through changes in welfare laws. Family planning proponents disagree. The Sentinel quotes Barbara Zdravecky, CEO of PP of Southwest and Central Florida and acting CEO of PP of Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, saying "Abstinence is one answer, but for many children it is not an option. The jury is still out on how the Bush administration and Dr. Brooks are going to handle family planning." Sue Idtensohn, CEO of PP of Orlando, is reported to have suggested that the state should seek similar funding for responsible comprehensive sexuality education and other teen pregnancy prevention programs. According to the story, if Brook's request is granted, the Department of Health will spend more on abstinenceonly education than it does on other teen pregnancy prevention programs.
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