Abortion Battle Shifts to Florida Capitol

Anti-abortion activists are already on the defensive as they prepare for a special session of the Florida Legislature this week, the first big legislative showdown on the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court opened the way for states to limit abortions.

They had hoped to expand quickly on the court’s July 3 approval of Missouri’s abortion restrictions. They face a strong possibility of defeat here, but they are painting a silver lining on the cloud that hangs over them.

“The real barometer on where the pro-life movement is going will not be the special session, but the 1990 elections,” said Ken Connor, Florida president of Right to Life, acknowledging that restrictive legislation pushed by Gov. Bob Martinez and others may never reach the House and Senate floors.

“If they torpedo bills in committee,” he added, “we think that may have an even greater galvanizing effect, because it will be a slap in the face of thousands and thousands” of abortion foes who have inundated state legislators with demands for action.

Pro-Choice ‘Media Event’

In the other camp, supporters of the right to choose abortion see a chance to gain momentum here toward legislative fights coming up in numerous other states.

“We certainly hope the media event here, which will include a march and rally and the results of the special session, will be a bellwether for the rest of the states,” said state Rep. Elaine Gordon, a Miami Democrat on the pro-choice side.

Martinez called the special session shortly after the Supreme Court upheld Missouri’s abortion law. He has conceded that the four-day session convening Tuesday may take no action, but a top aide said the governor is encouraged that a recent newspaper expose of a troubled abortion clinic has given impetus to a clinic regulation bill that could serve as a vehicle for other restrictions.

Martinez and his anti-abortion allies suffered a setback last week, when the Florida Supreme Court struck down a 1988 law that prohibited girls under 18 to undergo abortions without first obtaining permission from their parents or a court. The ruling buttressed a key position of abortion-rights advocates by noting that Florida’s is one of the few state constitutions that expressly guarantees a right to privacy.

Pennsylvania in Front

Although Pennsylvania’s Legislature last week became the first to begin considering anti-abortion measures since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Missouri, Florida’s will be the first to complete such deliberations, probably Friday. Thus, hordes of combatants on both sides of the volatile issue--not to mention hundreds of journalists from across the country--are descending on Tallahassee.

Demonstrators may besiege Florida’s high-rise Capitol and the 160 legislators, but none of the myriad bills may ever get out of the committee rooms. Panels to which the measures are expected to be referred have large pro-choice majorities ready to smother them. And the powerful Senate president and House Speaker, both pro-choice Democrats, have indicated they are unwilling to help get the bills to the floor, where they would stand a better chance of passage.

Moreover, a Miami Herald survey found that a solid majority of the legislators sees no need to change Florida law, which allows abortion during the first six months of a pregnancy but prohibits it later unless a doctor certifies that it is necessary to protect the woman’s life. State Medicaid can pay for abortion only when the mother’s life is threatened.

Lawmakers on the Spot

“I don’t think anybody looks forward to this gut-wrenching question,” said Sen. John A. Grant Jr. of Tampa, a Republican who opposes abortion. “Legislators for an extended period have said they’re pro-life or pro-choice, thinking they’d never have to vote on it. Now they’re being jerked at the navel, knowing they have to go on the board.”

Martinez is pressing a four-part package headed by his proposal for tightening regulation of abortion clinics by requiring that they meet the same standards as walk-in surgical clinics. He says the need is made urgent by the recent closing of what he called a “butcher shop-type clinic” in Miami’s Dade County--a clinic repeatedly sued for malpractice whose questionable activities were graphically described in the Miami Herald.

Rep. Gordon, who contends that strict enforcement of present regulations would suffice, said the governor’s proposed rules would be “overburdensome” and drive up the cost of an abortion.

Under the governor’s proposal, “Standards for abortion clinics would be far more severe than for private doctors’ offices where vasectomies are performed,” said Charlene Carres, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union and Florida Voice for Choice.

Clinic Rules Compared

Connor countered: “In Florida, veterinary clinics are subject to more stringent regulations than an abortion center. I doubt seriously that any responsible abortion clinic would be put out of business.”

Another of the Martinez measures would require that women considering abortion be informed about the details of the fetus’s development, about the risks of the surgical procedure and about alternatives, such as adoption.

A Supreme Court ruling in 1985 struck down all such “informed consent” laws, but Pete Dunbar, Martinez’s general counsel and top lobbyist, said the Missouri decision showed that “the door has been opened to legislation that heretofore was impermissible under Roe vs. Wade,” the landmark 1973 decision that struck down laws against abortion.

Two other parts of the Martinez package mirror the court-endorsed Missouri law. One would prohibit use of public funds, employees or facilities for abortions except in cases of rape or incest or those necessary to save the mother’s life. The other would bar abortion later than 20 weeks if a physician determines that the fetus could survive.