Government Gets the Message

The majority of the people in United States who believe that the decision to have an abortion is a serious choice but still a deeply personal one should take comfort from two key legislative decisions this week. In both Florida and in Washington, legislators were willing to stand up and be counted against further restrictions on legal abortions.

Florida Gov. Bob Martinez, who called a special session of the Legislature in an effort to place limits on abortion, found himself in the embarrassing position of a drum major without a band. The one measure that received fairly broad support, a proposal that would have called for stronger state regulation of abortion clinics, will likely be reconsidered during the regular session.

But the Legislature decisively spurned Martinez’s attempts to impose several restrictions, including prohibiting public hospitals from performing abortions. The Legislature’s action was particularly noteworthy because this is the same Legislature that just last year passed a law to require a minor to get the permission of a parent or a judge in order to obtain an abortion. But last week the Florida Supreme Court struck that down, based on the state’s privacy law.

In a hard-fought vote in Congress, the House narrowly approved a provision that extended government-funded abortions to poor women who have been the victims of rape or incest. The vote is an about-face from the policy that prevailed throughout the Reagan Administration. While there have been repeated attempts to restore federal funding for cases of rape and incest, a timid House has failed to do so until now.

Some abortion-rights advocates say that the votes signal a major tide change. But President Bush has threatened to veto the House measure, which has been endorsed once by the Senate and is expected to be routinely approved again. Even if Congress can manage the difficult task of overriding a presidential veto, pro-choice advocates still face bruising battles this year in legislatures in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Texas, where anti-abortion supporters are expected to push a cluster of bills that will attempt to impose parental, spousal or partner consent and waiting periods on abortions. Certainly it is too early for pro-choice advocates to declare victory over an intractable controversy likely to continue for some time.

But the votes in the House and in Florida do indicate that many Americans remain convinced that the right to an abortion is best left standing. The rejection of further limits is an acknowledgement that many voters have made it known to their legislators that they prefer to keep abortion legal and safely available to those who seek it.