Davis Says Simon Could Roll Back Abortion Rights if Elected Governor

Gov. Gray Davis, striving to focus voters’ attention on social matters, warned Tuesday that his Republican challenger, Bill Simon Jr., could roll back abortion rights, and he charged that Simon’s attempt to avoid talk of abortion is a slap at voters.

Davis used the occasion of receiving the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League’s endorsement to renew his attack on Simon’s opposition to abortion.

“This is an issue where the differences are stark, crystal clear,” Davis said. “He is on one side and I’m on the other side.”

Simon acknowledges that he opposes abortion, but seeks to aim his campaign at Davis’ handling of the energy crisis, schools and the economy. “Gray Davis has to focus on these wedge issues,” Simon campaign spokesman Jamie Fisfis said, “because on the issues that unite Californians, like the economy, schools and energy, he has a failed track record.”

Although Davis languishes in public opinion surveys, his stand on abortion rights is in sync with most Californians, and it has been a winning issue for him in campaigns. He defeated his 1998 opponent, former Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, in part by focusing on Lungren’s opposition to abortion.

And Davis took the extraordinary step of spending more than $8 million in this year’s Republican primary, airing television ads criticizing former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s ambiguous position on abortion rights. Many political experts had assumed Riordan would have been Davis’ toughest foe in the November general election.

Once again, Davis is contrasting his stand on abortion rights, gun control and other social issues with the more conservative positions held by Simon. Davis has scheduled another event today underscoring steps he has taken to ensure that health maintenance organizations provide women with contraceptives and other family planning services.

“When you say you’re changing the subject,” Davis said, “it is like a slap in the face to voters. It is not our decision. It’s the voters’ decision as to what they want to talk about, and clearly this is an issue of concern to lots of Californians.”

The governor said all 180 judges he has appointed embrace the state’s constitutional protection of privacy, which ensures that women have a right under state law to obtain abortions. He pointed to his budget decisions that increase funding for family planning, and to bills he has signed to protect access to abortion clinics and expand the availability of contraceptives.

“There are clearly things a governor can do to enhance or diminish a woman’s right to chose,” Davis said. “People in this state want a governor who will add to that right, not subtract from that.”

Davis questioned whether Simon would have signed the measures. Fisfis said Simon has “made a policy of not to comment on individual pieces of legislation.”

“If Bill is elected governor,” Fisfis said, “he will use his mandate to address issues: the economy, schools and the quality-of-life issue, energy, roads and water.”

In endorsing Davis, Kate Michelman, president of the abortion rights league, called him a “model governor” on abortion rights and family planning issues. She added that the issue is important for voters when they seek to determine a candidate’s “values.”

“The issue isn’t abortion,” Michelman said. “The issue is, ‘Who decides?’ The issue is the right of women to control their own lives.... Once voters know the way a candidate views the right to choose, and the role of government versus women, it will often move voters right to that pro-choice candidate.”

Political consultants said the issue’s impact come November will depend on the candidates’ ability to shape the debate.

Its importance, said Republican consultant Wayne Johnson, is “strictly a function of whether the Simon campaign rises to the bait and allows the campaign to be pulled off-message.” Simon needs to focus on the budget deficit and taxes, Johnson said.

“If [Davis] succeeds in making it about issues that are not really the most important in the state,” Johnson said, “that means one of the two teams didn’t show up to play--and I can guarantee you the Simon team will show up.”

Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman, in a separate interview, said Davis is correct: “It is a pivotal issue. Symbolically, a woman’s right to choose is very visceral.... And in a governor’s race, when you’re going to run the state, they want to know where you stand on that issue.

“The longer [Davis] can keep voters focused on that issue,” Kaufman added, “the better the election is going to go.”