Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992 TAG: 9203220275
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
During the 1989 gubernatorial race, Wilder sought to assure voters that he shared "mainstream" views on abortion. Reflecting public opinion polls, Wilder stressed that he opposed all restrictions on abortions except one: "I believe that a young woman under the age of 18 should be required to notify and receive the consent of her parents before having an abortion," he said.
Wilder won the historically-close race by less than 7,000 votes out of almost 1.8 million cast, and political analysts across the country believed that his abortion stand provided his margin of victory.
Today, legislation sits on Wilder's desk that would require unmarried girls under 18 to tell a parent before having an abortion. The bill, which passed the General Assembly this winter after more than a decade-long fight, contains the one proviso Wilder insisted on in 1989 - that teens could bypass their parents if a judge gave them permission.
A sure bet for the governor's signature, you say?
Hardly.
Wilder is threatening to veto the bill. At a news conference last week, he said he could not sign it in its present form. Wilder said he might insist upon amendments that anti-abortion forces say would gut the bill, including lowering the age of girls covered by the legislation to under 16 and empowering doctors, nurses and clergy to give teens permission for abortions without telling their parents. He also faulted legislators for not determining the fiscal impact of the bill on state courts.
The governor added, however, that he may not have time to amend the bill to his liking before an April 7 deadline and might simply stamp it with a veto that the legislature would be unlikely to overturn.
Even so, Wilder insisted that he is still behind parental notification. "I could support a measure that is properly drawn," he said.
A review of Wilder's 22-year political career suggests that he may always have been opposed to teen-age abortion restrictions but willing to muddle his position to serve his ambitions.
As a state senator in 1979, Wilder voted against an unsuccessful bill that would have required unmarried girls under 18 to receive permission from a parent before having an abortion.
Wilder did a double-flip on the issue in 1985, when he was running for lieutenant governor. First, he voted for a parental consent bill. Then, he voted to gut the bill by supporting an amendment that would empower any physician to allow a girl to have an abortion without approval from her parents. The legislation died when its sponsors decided they would rather have no restrictions at all than a bill with such a gaping loophole.
Wilder played abortion by the numbers during the 1989 campaign. He first hedged on the issue and was called "wimpish" by Mollie Yard, then-chairman of the National Organization of Women. A day later, he began defending unrestricted abortion rights for all women except minors - a position shared by almost two-thirds of state voters.
"His positioning was a critical component of his campaign," says Thomas Morris, a University of Richmond political scientist. "It helped develop his image as a mainstream, non-threatening candidate."
A veto, Morris says, would offer clear evidence that Wilder's agenda is still dominated by his national aspirations. The Democratic Party is increasingly staking out a no-compromise position on abortion rights. Any restrictions signed by Wilder would likely destroy his standing with Democratic women and other pro-abortion forces.
Wilder, of course, says a veto would not break any promise to Virginians. The governor, a defense lawyer by training, says that when he was pressed on the issue in 1989, he merely stipulated that he "could" sign a parental notification bill but never pledged that he would.
The problem is that a majority of Virginians may have chosen a candidate without reading the fine print. The message from Wilder could be: "Let the voter beware."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB