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NRL News “The Coalition of the Most Unlikely” A week before the Vermont House of Representatives considered H44—a virtual clone of Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” measure—it would be difficult to exaggerate how certain everyone was that assisted suicide was going to pass in the Green Mountain State. Pro-euthanasia forces had been chipping away at a state which (to quote Vermont Right to Life Executive Director Mary Hahn Beerworth) “is usually ripe for whatever is new, for whatever is coming down the pike” since 1976! In the last three years, outside forces had stepped up their pace. They’d poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into passage, much of it for slick television commercials that had been running since last December. Those ads featured three former governors. Eight—count them—eight high-powered lobbyists were brought on board to shepherd H44 through the legislature. Not only had two committees already approved the proposal, but pro-lifers had lost some 15 seats in the 2006 elections. “Never will pro-euthanasia forces have the forces aligned for passage any better than they did this time round,” Beerworth said. And, then, on March 21, miraculously, the measure lost by 82–63. So historic was the vote that a friend of Beerworth’s, a veteran lobbyist, told her to gather all her materials together because the state Historical Society will want them! This has been a tough year for assisted suicide proponents. They’d already lost in Hawaii, another state where the skids appeared to have been greased for passage. But Vermont appeared to be even easier pickings. How did Vermont Right to Life, the Catholic Diocese, the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare, the Vermont Medical Association, the Vermont Organization of Nurse Leaders, and the Vermont Center for Independent Living (to name only some) defeat the assisted suicide juggernaut? The defeat of H44 illustrates the amazing power of grassroots organization. Postcards, letters, e-mails, and phone calls poured into the state capital in Montpelier. “It was the constituent response to this bill that sealed the deal,” Beerworth said. “We had good facts and figures and solid medical testimony backing us up,” she said. But when you get 10–1 phone calls against H44, as members of the Vermont House did, “that’s what did it in.” Beerworth mentioned one urban area represented by a Progressive legislator who related that the constituents he heard from opposed the bill 4–1. But the wholly unexpected victory illustrated another powerful truth. Facts do matter and people who are not with us on abortion can be educated on euthanasia. This is especially so, Beerworth emphasized, when pro-lifers treat legislators who may be skeptical of them with courtesy and respect. And that, along with the merits of the case made by assisted suicide opponents, was crucial, according to Beerworth: “Some liberals who came over were so powerful they carried five or six votes with them.” One liberal Democrat “delivered a powerfully pro-life speech (although she didn’t realize it) on behalf of the disability rights community,” Beerworth said. No sooner had she sat down than a conservative Republican got up and said this was the first time she’d ever voted with her. Beerworth dubbed the legislators who came together “the coalition of the most unlikely.” It was not until two days before the vote that Beerworth switched her objective. “We had a governor who wanted to veto the measure, so at first I was looking for enough votes to sustain the veto,” she said. But then, day by day, the long-shot campaign turned from a rear-guard action to sustain a veto to hoping to tie in the House to winning. “The timing was perfect,” Beerworth said. H44 headed to the floor, seemingly guaranteed to pass. “By the time proponents realized they were in big trouble, it was too late to pull from the bill.” But it was not just grassroots lobbying that carried the day; “People were changing their votes on the floor.” Why? “Because supporters couldn’t answer even the simplest questions: What drugs would be used? How many? What about out-of-staters?” It was a “stunning revelation,” Beerworth said, “when people realized there was no single ‘magic pill’—that people committing suicide would take 90 pills!” But even that didn’t just happen. The coalition had an ingenious plan. They knew that Oregon’s assisted suicide law was not working nearly as well as state officials keep insisting it is. (See story, page 6.) But the deaths were impersonal aggregate numbers. So everyday for 10 days prior to the vote, they made sure the legislators saw a different example of how physician-assisted suicide was really working in practice. “The front side of a half-page flyer read, ‘How well is the law working in Oregon,’” Beerworth said. On the other side would be a specific example of abuse and exploitation. “Some legislatures were on the floor with all 10 of them in their hands,” Beerworth said. A name and a face. “That did it for them. It was in a format they could understand and appreciate.” One of the most unlikely legislators eventually said, “We all now know that it’s not working in Oregon,” according to Beerworth. Beerworth is not foolish enough to believe that proponents will never try again. But she is hoping the contacts she made and the image pro-lifers projected will help in future battles on abortion. “We simply had to win on this,” she said. “You know how they say, it’s supposed to be elders first” “Well, we saved them first, and now we will renew our efforts to save the babies.” |