Lawmakers reject abortion bills
All proposals would have increased restrictions
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
AUGUSTA — The House and Senate rejected a bill Thursday that would have required women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion.
The House voted 86-54 against the bill and the Senate defeated it by a vote of 21-13.
The bill drew lively debate in both chambers, with many Republicans speaking for the bill and Democrats speaking against it. But legislators crossed party lines, too.
Augusta Republican Julie Ann O'Brien, a co-sponsor of the bill, said it was the only abortion-related bill she would support. The House rejected four other abortion bills on Thursday that have yet to be considered in the Senate.
O'Brien said she sees no harm in enforcing a 24-hour waiting period and supports another part of the bill that seeks to give women a brochure that talks about the risks involved with abortion and childbirth.
"I can't understand how that endangers or in any way jeopardizes the lives, physical or mental, of our women," she said.
On the other side, Rep. Lisa Marrache, D-Waterville, is a physician, who said women agonize over the decision to have an abortion.
"Have you ever talked to a woman considering abortion?" she asked. " I have. They think long and hard. It's one of the biggest decisions of their lives."
The number of abortions in Maine has been cut in half in the last 12 years, going from 4,600 in 1990 to 2,300 in 2002, according to the state Bureau of Health. The rates for teens have fallen about 40 percent.
Maine's abortion rate is less than half the national average.
The debate was similar in the Senate, where bill sponsor Sen. Carolyn Gilman, R-Westbrook, recapped much of the testimony from a public hearing on the bill.
Gilman said many women don't get to see the doctor before the procedure is performed. She said 21 other states already have some form of waiting period in place.
"The relationship with the doctor isn't present," she said. "They see a social worker. They don't see the doctor until they are in the room under anesthesia."
Assistant Senate Minority Leader Chandler Woodcock, R-Farmington, said the bill would not hurt a woman's right to choose, but it would help them make a better decision.
"As much as the opponents will claim the laws are adequate, women are not being given the information they need," he said.
Others in the House and Senate argued that the state's current informed consent law is adequate and that low-income women can't afford to visit a doctor twice to get an abortion. It's the fifth time in 10 years the Legislature has considered a waiting period bill.
Rep. Ross Paradis, D-Frenchville, was one of those who voted against the party line on the issue.
"We can make history here today by voting in a bipartisan way and giving babies-in-waiting the opportunity to join the human race," he said.
The House took up other abortion-related bills, including one that would raise the safety requirements in places where abortions are performed and another that would have required physicians who perform abortions on young women to pay for their mental health bills.
The abortion facility requirements bill, which failed by a 99-37 vote, was sponsored by Rep. Philip Cressey Jr., R-Baldwin. He said rooms where abortions are performed are not held to a high cleanliness standard.
"You could see bodily fluids in some areas that were not properly cleaned up," he said while describing a visit to a doctor with his wife.
But others argued that new standards would mean "excessive regulation" on facilities that perform abortions.
"It's inconsistent with standards necessary for the procedure," said Rep. Thomas Bull, D-Freeport.
There was no debate on the bill that would have required doctors to pay for mental health bills. The bill was defeated 101-35.
The two other bills that were rejected sought to eliminate immunity for doctors who report abortion data and a bill that would have required full completion of abortion reports.
Susan M. Cover — 623-1056
scover@centralmaine.com