Fight Flares on Abortion as Senate OKs Budget

Likening Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti led a drive Tuesday to cut off taxpayer support for family planning as the Senate approved its $37.7-billion version of the proposed state budget.

With the issue of abortion dominating debate over the 1986-87 budget in both houses of the Legislature, the Assembly version of the spending plan was stalled for the second day when Democrats outmaneuvered Republicans on two controversial anti-abortion amendments.

The fight over abortions has become almost an annual tradition at the Capitol, as the lawmakers construct a state budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The Senate voted 18 to 13 to strip from the budget $32 million earmarked for 180 family planning clinics. About $8 million would have gone to 16 Planned Parenthood clinics, which provide abortion counseling and, in some cases, abortions.

Scathing Attack

Roberti, a Los Angeles Democrat and longtime abortion foe, launched a scathing attack on Planned Parenthood, charging that in the 1930s, its founder, Margaret Sanger, espoused racist theories of selective breeding and forced sterilization for the “feeble-minded.”

“In my mind, it’s much the same as if suddenly the Ku Klux Klan had decided to reform and came here to Sacramento asking for child-care money,” he said in an emotional speech. “I would say, hey, maybe you’re doing good work, but before I give you any money, I want to hear you say, ‘I repent. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.’ ”

Hellan Dowden, executive president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said she was “shocked” by Roberti’s speech. It appeared, she said, to be part of a “big campaign to discredit Planned Parenthood.”

She said that Roberti painted a distorted picture of Sanger’s beliefs and that, in any case, Planned Parenthood long ago rejected the theories of selective breeding and forced sterilization.

Repudiated Ideas

“What we will do is get evidence that we have already repudiated these ideas that we all find abhorrent,” Dowden said. “If that’s what he wants, a statement on that, I don’t think that would be difficult.”

The abortion provision adopted by the Senate was identical to an amendment that was rejected last year by the Legislature, but mistakenly included in the final budget signed by Gov. George Deukmejian. The abortion restriction subsequently was struck down by the courts.

In addition to removing the family planning money from the budget, the Senate on Tuesday adopted a provision prohibiting female students from receiving an excused absence from school in order to get abortion counseling.

The Senate also voted to add $60 million to replace mass transit funds cut from the proposed budget by Deukmejian, bringing the size of the Senate budget to $37.7 billion.

The spending plan, approved by the Senate on a vote of 34 to 1, will end up in a two-house conference committee, where it will be reconciled with the proposed $37.5-billion Assembly version. The document then must go to Deukmejian by June 15.

Assembly Version

However, passage of the Assembly version of the budget was delayed when Republicans and Democrats reignited an abortion fight that first stalled the spending plan on Friday.

At the time, abortion foes obtained passage of an amendment prohibiting the use of Medi-Cal funds for abortion and a provision that would require the gathering of statistics on the number of abortions performed in California.

On Tuesday, Democrats circumvented the two amendments by taking the remainder of the budget legislation and placing it into another bill, thus creating a second budget measure. Outraged Republicans called the move “an unjustified tactical maneuver” and suggested that they may withhold the votes needed to pass the budget.

Meanwhile, Steven A. Merksamer, Deukmejian’s chief of staff, said the governor is likely to veto many expenditures from the budget, unless the Legislature sets aside more money in a special reserve account for economic uncertainties. Deukmejian has proposed a “rainy day fund” of more than $1 billion. The Senate version would leave a reserve of about $450 million, while the Assembly plan would set aside about $700 million.