Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 10, 1994 TAG: 9401100006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS and BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
With a friend in the governor's mansion and a Republican caucus just shy of a majority, the pro-notification crowd is more optimistic than ever about victory in their decade-long battle.
"We are more hopeful this year and very optimistic compared to past years," said Fiona A. Givens, communications director of the Virginia Society for Human Life.
Grace Sparks, executive director of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, acknowledged that she and other opponents of parental notice "will have a tougher fight in the 1994 General Assembly because we have a different governor and the influence of the religious right."
Both sides say success is likely to hinge on committee action in the Senate, where the Education and Health Committee has been the traditional bottleneck for such bills. When the assembly approved a parental notification bill two years ago - only to have it vetoed by Gov. Douglas Wilder - advocates succeeded by attaching the proposal to a bill in another Senate committee.
Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, said he and other proponents of parental notification will be scouring for a similar bill this year. He predicted that the bill will pass the Senate if it can get out of committee. The House has a history of approving such legislation.
Del. Stephen Martin, R-Richmond, also a strong backer, said senators' hopes of a quid pro quo from Gov.-elect George Allen and fear of voter retaliation are two forces improving prospects in the Senate. "Anytime you have a governor sitting there interested in something, it helps a bill's chance of passage," he said.
Martin and others suggested that any successful legislation likely will give girls who fear abuse from their parents an opportunity to get a judge's permission for an abortion rather than deal with the parents.
Anti-abortion forces are less sanguine about the rest of their agenda, but hope a tide may propel it. High on the priority list is a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion.
A bill certain to be introduced this year would require doctors to detail the possible risks and complications associated with abortion and require women to take 24 hours to review the information before going forward. Doctors also would have to give women the gestational age of their fetuses and possibly show them photographs of fetal development at that stage.
Martin was doubtful that parental notice would be the "tip of the iceberg" for anti-abortion forces, leading to other abortion restrictions. "I really don't see that," he said.
Despite new support from the governor's mansion, Martin said he doubts that tough restrictions on family-life education and contraception for teen-agers will pass the legislature.
But abortion rights forces are mobilizing for what they view as the worst.
On a taped telephone message at offices of the Richmond chapter of the National Organization for Women, callers are urged to contact lawmakers quickly and "urge them to vote against any changes in Virginia's abortion law."
Richmond NOW also urged callers to fight for abortion rights for teen-agers, calling parental notice legislation "teen endangerment."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB