Abortion Issue Taking On New Prominence

With abortion playing an increasingly prominent role in the campaign for U.S. Senate, Republican candidate Matt Fong said Thursday he endorses GOP-sponsored federal legislation that would make it a crime to help a minor evade state laws requiring parental consent for an abortion.

The Democratic incumbent, Sen. Barbara Boxer, immediately denounced him as an “extremist” who would join congressional Republicans in attempting to restrict and ultimately outlaw abortion rights.

Laws requiring parental consent are enforced in 15 states; in six others, including California, enforcement is being blocked by court challenges. In 14 additional states, parents must be notified, although their consent is not required.

“I believe in local control of the laws, and if they [minors] need consent, they should go get consent,” Fong said at a meeting with reporters in Los Angeles.

Pressed on whether he would exempt a minor’s grandparents from prosecution, an uncharacteristically edgy Fong said he is open to the idea.

“I recognize there are dysfunctional families,” Fong said. “I want to address that. I am open if you want to say [exempt] grandparent or first cousin. . . . I just don’t want to make it a guy down the block or the neighbor next door.”

As he often does in discussing politically volatile social issues, Fong used a personal reference to support his views: “I don’t want my 15-year-old daughter’s girlfriend’s uncle, who is 22, saying, ‘OK, let’s go across to Nevada and get an abortion.’ ”

The House in July voted 276-150 for a bill making it a crime to assist a minor in traveling to a nonconsent state for an abortion. The measure was thwarted in the Senate.

Republicans have vowed to reintroduce the legislation after the November elections, when they hope their numbers will increase enough to withstand a threatened veto by President Clinton.

Boxer, appearing at a rally in Santa Monica with fellow Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), attacked Fong for his support of the legislation, which she opposes.

“This is a terrible precedent to make it a crime when you go to another state for what is a legal health procedure,” Boxer said. “This is one nation, after all, under God.”

Asked if Fong is an extremist, Boxer said, “Definitely. Anyone who says Roe vs. Wade [which legalized abortion] was wrongly decided, that it’s a states-rights issue, that there is no constitutional guarantee to privacy, is joining the extremists in Congress who have tried more than 100 times [to restrict] a woman’s right to choose.”

Fong has said he supports keeping abortion legal in the first trimester but also supports parental-consent laws for minors and opposes public funding for abortions. Boxer supports keeping abortion legal and opposes parental-consent laws because she says many young women are too afraid to ask their parents.

Fong said that he wishes that “all women [would] make their choice for adoption. As one who has been adopted, I wouldn’t be here if my birth mother did not choose life.”

Fong advocates a flat-tax plan that does not call for continuation of tax breaks meant to make adoption easier.