STATE LEGISLATION FUTURE BRIGHT

By Dave Andrusko

When state legislatures are in session, trying to squeeze a half-hour out of Mary Spaulding Balch's hectic schedule for an interview is a formidable challenge. For during those months, NRLC's director of state legislation resembles a whirling dervish, calmly racing from one emergency to another, helping/coaxing/strengthening NRLC affiliates and pro-life legislators as they do battle for unborn children and the medically dependent elderly.

But talk we did one recent Tuesday afternoon, sandwiched between items on her non-stop schedule that included making phone calls, sending out faxes, reading e-mails, and scanning proposed legislation.

Mrs. Balch, who has given the last 29 years of her life to the Movement, is decidedly upbeat. Already in the 2001 legislative cycle Virginia and Arkansas have passed pro-life legislation and other states have had their laws upheld by courts, she said.

"We've got the momentum, that's all there is to it," she told NRL News. "In many states it began last year and has carried over even in states where virtually no pro-life legislation has ever gotten out of committee."

Balch's assessment is mirrored by the gloomy conclusions of NARAL's annual report, "Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive Rights. The summary that accompanied the report included the following lament from NARAL Legal Director Elizabeth Cavendish:

"We release this report annually and every year the picture gets bleaker and bleaker for women's reproductive rights." Every year, there are more obstacles, more barriers in the path of women seeking to exercise their right to choose. The ultimate goal for anti-choice activists and lawmakers is the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Short of that goal, lawmakers are doing everything in their power to make it more difficult and burdensome for a woman to obtain an abortion."

Balch noted, "You have to take what they say with a grain of salt - - according to NARAL, the sky is always falling - - but they are right that the movement is virtually all in the pro-life direction."

For example, Vermont was given an "A" by NARAL, signifying that it is one of the "best" states from NARAL's perspective. But that was before the public learned how two mothers found out that their young daughters obtained abortions without their knowledge, and went to the legislature to tell how the "abortion experience" destroyed their families.

"Parental notification laws are extremely difficult for pro-abortion forces to defeat," Balch said, "which is why they rely on sending these bills to 'dead-end' committees never to be heard from again." That's what happened to Vermont's parental notification law.

But the constituents of the chair of the House Health and Welfare Committee, which buried the legislation in 2000, showed their feelings by defeating him last November. His seat was filled by a pro-lifer. This strident pro-abortionist was replaced as committee chair by a legislator who also supports legal abortion, but one who shares the conviction that a vast majority of people in Vermont hold:parents have a right to know about such life and death decisions involving their minor children. [A January 2000 poll conducted by Wirthlin found that 72% of Vermonters agree at least one parent should be notified before the abortion proceeds.]

"He promised us a hearing - - and we got one," Balch said. "He worked for a 'clean bill' - - one not burdened down with extraneous amendments - - and that's what was sent by the committee to the floor of the House." The measure requires a physician to notify a parent or guardian at least 48 hours before a scheduled abortion on a minor.

Likewise, Hawaii has been one of the most pro-abortion states in the union, going back as far as the early 1970s. NARAL's recent report gave Hawaii an "A-."

Just a few weeks ago, a parental notification bill was passed by a Senate committee. SB 809 SD1 requires physicians to notify parents of a minor, under age 18, at least four days before performing an abortion.

While cautioning that the bill may not survive the other legislative body, Balch said, "This is a tremendous victory. To the best of my knowledge no pro-life bill has ever passed out of committee in Hawaii."

Pro-lifers are offering a range of bills, reflecting the situation in their respective states. In addition to parental notification measures, "woman's right to know" bills enjoy strong support. There is also some movement in winning funding for alternatives to abortion.

Some states are working to stop the use of state dollars from paying for abortions, while others are enacting clinic regulation measures to clean up the worst abuses of abortion facilities. (See stories on pages 2, 4 and 15.) Still other states are proposing informed consent bills that include language about fetal pain and the connection between abortion and breast cancer.

Balch attributes the string of successes and new surge of energy to a whole host of factors, including the changeover in control of state houses with Republicans now in a majority; better assignment for pro-life bills; changes in composition of key committees; the election of more pro-lifers to state legislatures; the arrival of new pro-abortion legislators who do not assume office with years and years invested in promoting unlimited abortion on demand; and sheer persistence on the part of NRLC affiliates who have refused to give up.

She was too modest to mention one of other crucial factor: NRLC's State Legislative Department.

"Pro-lifers have quietly toiled for years and years with seemingly little to show for it," Balch said. "But the planting and the cultivating is now beginning to pay off."