The New Politics of Abortion

Assemblywoman Cathie Wright of Simi Valley is a perfect illustration of how the abortion issue has complicated the lives of conservative Republican legislators.

This year, she voted to support Gov. George Deukmejian’s big reduction in state funds for family planning clinics that serve the poor. Her vote helped close 17 of the 80 clinics in Los Angeles County. As a result, about 50,000 women are being denied birth control advice, and more unwanted babies will be born to families least able to afford them.

In the view of conservative Republican legislators, a vote against the clinics is a vote against abortion. The clinics, they say, exist mainly to tell the poor to have abortions. That’s not true. If a woman is pregnant, clinic personnel offer the options: birth, preceded by prenatal care; adoption, or abortion. But Republican lawmakers opposed to abortion have so distorted what happens at the clinics that the family planning and abortion issues have become linked.

The polls show that this could hurt Republicans like Wright. The Times Poll found last month that a majority of California Republicans, as well as Democrats, favor abortion. More than likely, Wright’s 37th District, though 52% Republican, is pro-choice.

Wright is opposed in the June primary election by a Republican, Hunt Braly, who is chief aide to State Sen. Edward M. Davis (R-Valencia). Braly wants to restore the money taken from the family planning clinics. Thus, his goal will be to somehow make Wright’s anti-clinic vote seem like an anti-choice vote.

At the same time, Wright is under intense pressure from family planning groups, which are aware of the polls, to change her stand on the clinics and vote to restore the money when the Legislature reconvenes. Similar pressure is being put on other GOP legislators. “Our strategy is almost entirely geared to Republicans,” a family planning leader told me.

Thus Republicans like Wright may be the key to whether the clinics reopen in Los Angeles County.

Of course, there are other issues , and they will probably be more decisive in the contest between Wright and Braly. Wright, herself, is the main issue. She’s seen to that.

At the age of 59, and after eight years in the Legislature, she’s never learned finesse. Highly combative, Wright can’t even get along with Republican legislators in neighboring districts.

Through most of her career, her mood has seemed to suit her 37th District, where the spirit of the Proposition 13 tax revolt still lives. But bad publicity overwhelmed her after she was accused of trying to get local authorities to go easy on her daughter, the recipient of two dozen speeding tickets.

And, she actually considered running against Braley’s boss, Sen. Davis, in the 1988 Republican primary. Although Ed Davis is more mellow than when he was Los Angeles police chief, there’s enough of the rough cop left in him to enjoy settling a score. He’ll make sure that Braly has money for a campaign.

Braly, an attorney who graduated from USC and Loyola Law School, said he expects to make Wright the main issue by basing his campaign on an ethics theme. And he is accusing her of being pro-development.

But Braly said he is also going to talk about abortion and the need for the family planning clinics. Family planning, he said, prevents unwanted pregnancies and abortion.

The abortion issue has worried Republican strategists ever since the Supreme Court in the Webster decision last July opened the door to states imposing new limits on abortion. The result of that decision was to energize pro-choice forces and center their attention on legislative races.

Now, abortion has become a cutting edge issue. In San Diego, Republican Tricia Hunter defied party leaders, took a pro-choice stand and won a close race. State Sen. John Seymour, an Orange County Republican running for lieutenant governor, has reversed himself and become pro-choice.

The family planning political strategists are trying to take advantage of this changing sentiment and persuade more Republican legislators to support the clinics when the legislative session opens in January.

In the months ahead, their theory will be tested in Cathie Wright’s district. When she was elected in 1980, the tax revolt dominated the politics of these suburbs. Now the politics of taxes may be replaced by the politics of abortion.