Pro-Abortion Group Will Spend $3M on 2002 Elections



Alabama Pro-Life Law Will Take Effect in Two Weeks

Montgomery, AL — A federal judge refused Monday to halt implementation of a new pro-life Alabama law requiring abortion practitioners to present women having abortions with information the risks of abortion and alternatives at least 24 hours ahead of time.

Similar laws in other states have been shown to reduce the number of abortions.

However, the judge ordered the state Department of Public Health to delay distribution of state-produced brochures and video tapes. U.S. District Judge Harold Albritton also ruled that women would be exempt from the 24-hour waiting period in two specific circumstances where the unborn child would not survive outside the womb.

Attorneys on both sides of the issue claimed victory after receiving Albritton's 19-page ruling.

“This is a victory that allows the state to move forward with an important law that calls for providing women with the information necessary to ensure they have given voluntary and informed consent before an abortion is performed,” Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor said.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys for the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York, who were representing six Alabama abortion facilities. One of the attorneys, Linda Rosenthal, said the plaintiffs plan to continue to pursue the ultimate aim of the lawsuit, which is to have the law declared unconstitutional.

“This is actually a very good ruling,” Rosenthal said. “The judge recognized that [abortion practitioner] have discretion and have the right to give truthful information. We intend to continue to battle this and pursue the merits of the lawsuit.”

The pro-abortion plaintiffs claimed the information to be distributed by the state would have included false or misleading information about abortions. Because the law does not require the information to be distributed immediately, Albritton told the state not to give the materials to abortion facilities until he has had a chance to review them.

Albritton issued his ruling after hearing two days of testimony last week. The judge, in his ruling, said the act is similar to “informed consent” laws that have passed in other states. The judge ruled that physicians must go ahead and give patients certain information 24 hours before the abortion as long as the information is “truthful and not misleading.”

Albritton stopped the state from enforcing the law in cases where a woman has been diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, where the baby is growing outside the womb and in cases where the woman is carrying a baby with anomalies that would prevent it from surviving outside the womb.

The abortion facilities had also challenged a provision of the law that required abortion practitioners to tell a woman who had been pregnant for 19 weeks or longer if the baby could survive outside the womb. Albritton upheld that portion of the law, but said they should give a truthful answer concerning how long the fetus would live.

Pryor said the important consequence of Albritton's ruling was that the act will become law on Oct. 14.

“Abortion is literally a life-or-death decision, and should only be made with full knowledge of its nature and consequences,” Pryor said.

John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, which backed the bill in the Legislature, called the lawsuit “frivolous and without merit.”

Giles said, “We believe it is a legal stall tactic which will ultimately jeopardize the health care for women seeking abortions. Abortion is an invasive surgical procedure and women have a legitimate right and responsibility to have all of the facts and health risks associated with this surgical procedure. The process outlined in this bill is consistent with ambulatory surgical procedures where a patient is briefed on the procedure along with associated risks and returns the next day for the surgery.”

See the Associated Press for more articles like this.

(This update courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)


Washington, DC — With the control of the Senate up for grabs and the fate

of significant pro-life legislation hanging in the balance, the National

Abortion and Reproductive Rights League said yesterday that it will spend

most of its $3 million election-year budget on protecting the pro-abortion

majority in the Senate, backing candidates in nine key races.

“Our top priority is keeping the Senate in pro-choice leadership hands,”

said NARAL President Kate Michelman, arguing that Republican leaders in

Congress and the White House oppose abortion, leaving the one-vote

Democratic majority in the Senate the last line of support for the

pro-abortion forces.

“A Senate with pro-choice leadership is the only barrier” to the enactment

of legislation restricting abortion rights and to the nomination of a

pro-life Supreme Court justice “whose vote could eviscerate Roe v. Wade,”

Michelman said at a news briefing.

The nine Senate races are in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri,

New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas. She said NARAL will

support Frank Lautenberg, the pro-abortion candidate chosen to replace Sen.

Robert G. Torricelli (D-NJ), who abandoned his re-election bid.

NARAL will put money into targeting a database of 4 million voters who

support abortion.

NARAL has endorsed a total of 163 House members, mostly Democrats but

including a handful of pro-abortion Republicans.

In a statement in response to the NARAL announcement, the Family Research

Council encouraged pro-life advocates to get out and vote.

“Regardless of the money NARAL lavishes on lobbying or advertising, it

can't take away your right to vote. Democracy is a priceless tool to protect the unborn. Exercise your right to defend life this November,” the group said.

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