Florida Abortion Showdown May Be a Letdown

Placards have been painted, stirring speeches rehearsed, riot police drilled and graphic photos mailed to state lawmakers for a legislative showdown on abortion. But a state Supreme Court ruling last week may have preempted the purpose of the session.

Legislators in other states, such as Pennsylvania, are considering abortion bills as part of their regular sessions, but Florida’s four-day special session, beginning Tuesday, was supposed to offer a focused battleground on the emotion-charged issue.

It is the first legislative special session on abortion scheduled to open since the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 3 ruling upholding Missouri laws restricting abortion.

Estimates of the number of activists coming for the session range up to 200,000, or double the population of this city. The activists are expected to pump as much as $4 million into the local economy, but as far as lawmaking is concerned, the session may be a wash.

Legislative leaders already reluctant to tackle abortion said the special session became a guaranteed waste of time and money with a decision last Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court. The court--citing the state constitution’s guarantee of privacy--knocked down a 1988 parental consent law for minors seeking abortions.

“It’s total chaos,” said state Rep. Ben Graber, an obstetrician who performs abortions. “We’re heading into a session that was already vague, and now it’s blurred. Obviously, we are going to have constitutional problems with any bill.”

Legislative leaders say Republican Gov. Bob Martinez, who ordered the session, should postpone it. He rejects the idea, and some say it is possible that the Legislature will come to order as required by law, then adjourn without action.

In calling the special session, Martinez noted that the next 60-day regular session of the Florida Legislature is not scheduled to begin until April, 1990. That is too long to wait, the strongly anti-abortion governor said.

He proposed a package of abortion restrictions that include testing for fetus viability before abortions can be performed after the first trimester, restricting abortions in publicly funded facilities and increasing state regulation of abortion clinics.

Heated rhetoric, and the fact that the state has seen the bombings of several abortion clinics in recent years, has officials taking extra security precautions.

The city police force trained a 40-officer “Alpha Force” riot squad for potential widespread civil disobedience. Monitoring cameras were installed between state office buildings.

Politicians say an already high volume of abortion mail has picked up steadily, not just in amount but in shock value, with political and personal threats and color photos of fetuses.

Anti-abortion lawmakers have received hundreds of small handmade hangers, along with some regular hangers, symbolizing the pro-choice side’s contention that restricting abortion will spur unsafe, illegal abortions.