When Bette Grande, a state representative in Fargo (ND38FARG), North Dakota, wanted to make it illegal for a woman to end a pregnancy after learning her unborn child would suffer from Down syndrome or another chromosomal abnormality, she turned to a trusted source.
Americans United for Life, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C., legal group that has worked for more than four decades to overturn abortion rights, had drafted a model bill to achieve just what Grande was seeking.
“I saw that they had information that I could use in my testimony -- good, factual information regarding abnormalities and the discrimination that occurs inside the womb, aborting 90 percent of these babies,” Grande, a Republican, said in an interview.
It’s a role Americans United for Life is playing to fuel a wave of state-level efforts to restrict abortions and chip away at the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court (1000L) ruling that made the procedure legal. So far in 2013, 17 states have enacted 45 new curbs on abortion. In addition to providing legislative language and data, the group created a state ranking system to stoke an anti-abortion arms race of sorts among Republican governors and legislators.
‘Overturn Roe’
“Our organization has attempted to inject, if you will, a bit of competition between the states, and that has been good, because at the end of the day, not every state has done everything possible that can be done to reduce abortion and boost the long-term effort to get the court to overturn Roe,” Dan McConchie, AUL’s Chicago-based vice president for government affairs, said in an interview. “People come to us and say, ‘What else do we need to do to boost our ranking?’”
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple signed Grande’s bill into law soon after it passed, along with the most far-reaching abortion restriction of any state -- a ban on the procedure that applies as soon as a heartbeat can be detected, or as early as six weeks. Taken together, the laws represent the most aggressive effort to limit abortion in the U.S. Attention now turns to Texas and North Carolina, which are debating anti-abortion-rights legislation this week.
“There is a long-term strategy by abortion opponents to focus on the states, and it is reshaping the landscape around abortion,” said Elizabeth Nash, the Washington, D.C.-based state issues manager at New York’s nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for reproductive health and rights. “We are seeing these bills become law all across the country -- well over half the states have enacted some sort of abortion restrictions in the last three years.”
Split Strategy
Even as the Republican National Committee retools its message to better appeal to women as part of a broader rebranding effort following its loss of the 2012 presidential election, Republicans in many states -- catering to narrower constituencies that prioritize such issues -- are moving in the other direction.
They include the North Dakota “heartbeat” law and one in Arkansas banning most abortions after 12 weeks’ gestation; new laws in Arizona, Michigan and Virgina placing stringent rules on abortion clinics; and a Virginia law requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion.
“It’s very encouraging to pro-life people around the country to see what the states are doing, especially after the way that Chairman Reince Priebus acted after the defeat at the presidential level, saying we had to remake our image and sort of soothe everyone,” said former Republican Representative Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, vice president for government affairs of the Washington, D.C.-based Susan B. Anthony List, which seeks to end abortions.
Legal Clashes
The new laws are sparking legal battles around the country. Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the American Civil Liberties Union last night got a court order delaying legislation signed last week by Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin that would require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Federal judges in Alabama and Mississippi have stopped similar laws from being implemented after finding they may result in substantial burdens for women seeking to terminate pregnancies.
North Dakota’s sole abortion clinic has brought a federal suit to block that state’s law, and a federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks, after the the state’s American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged it.
Conflicted Public
Polling offers a mixed picture of the public’s views on abortion, suggesting the political ramifications could also be unpredictable. While many national surveys show that a majority of Americans want abortion to be legal in all or most cases and Roe to be upheld, they also indicate that support for abortion rights falls as the fetal gestational age rises.
A December 2012 USA Today/Gallup poll found that while the public believes abortion should be legal in the first three months of pregnancy -- 61 percent to 31 percent -- the result flipped when respondents were asked about the second three months -- when just 27 percent thought abortion should be legal and 64 percent wanted it outlawed.
The National Right to Life Committee’s political action committee, which backs candidates who oppose abortion rights, says of the 290 federal candidates it endorsed last year, 80 percent won their elections. At the same time, exit polls indicate that Republicans fare poorly with women at a national level. In 2012, President Barack Obama earned an 11-point edge over rival Mitt Romney, 55 percent to 44 percent.
Perry’s Push
Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry is using this month’s special session to push through a bill that imposes new regulations on clinics that could force closure of many and would ban abortion after 20 weeks. He has credited AUL with providing his state and others with a guide to enacting such measures. Texas ranks 14th in the AUL’s anti-abortion rating.
AUL has maintained a warm rapport with Perry, even benefiting financially from its alliance with him. Shortly after announcing his presidential campaign in 2011, Perry co-chaired a gala for the group in Washington, D.C. That same year, AUL dispatched a Texas-based lobbyist, Ashley McAndrew, to ask State Senator Dan Patrick of Houston to sponsor a version of its model legislation to restrict use of abortion-inducing drugs such as RU-486 that terminates early pregnancies. Patrick obliged, and it was he who called on Perry to convene the special legislative session currently underway.
Abortion Playbook
The group publishes a lengthy “Defending Life” book each year -- this year’s tops 700 pages and contains 48 pieces of model legislation -- that outlines its strategy for upending Roe and provides like-minded lawmakers with a step-by-step guide for how they can help.
“In order for the court to actually reconsider Roe, it has to have an active case before it. So, we work with legislators to pass laws that will essentially spark the right kind of court challenge, and give them the opportunity to reconsider the question, as well as working with states, in the meantime, to actually help them reduce their abortion levels,” said McConchie.
Nash says the past three years have seen a record number of abortion restrictions enacted at the state level, and they are expanding in scope.
House Vote
Among the most popular in recent months have been efforts such as the one in Texas to narrow the window during which women can terminate pregnancies to before 20 weeks gestation, an idea endorsed by the Republican-led U.S. House, which voted June 18 to do so.
States are also turning to regulations on abortion clinics, spurred in part by a national focus on the case of Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted of murder in May after a trial that detailed his unorthodox late-term abortion methods at an unsanitary facility.
“This is no doubt a net-winning issue for Republicans, because you’re either going to stand with Kermit Gosnell, or you’re going to stand with unborn babies and women’s health,” said Virginia-based Republican strategist Greg Mueller.
Democrats say the focus belies Republican claims of rebranding and will alienate key groups they have promised to court.
Narrow-Minded Agenda
“Republicans from state Houses to Congress are working day and night in pursuit of a narrow-minded agenda to infringe on the rights of women to make health-care decisions that are best for them,” said a June 18 Democratic National Committee statement, which called the recent moves an “assault on women’s health.”
Republicans are aware of the success Democrats had last year in painting their party as waging a “war on women,” and are retooling their message to emphasize women’s health in their efforts to enact new abortion limits.
AUL’s book acknowledges the conflict. “Legislative and educational efforts that only emphasize the impact of abortion on the unborn are insufficient because they fail to account for this paradox,” reads this year’s volume. “The public is concerned about both the impact on women and the impact on the unborn from abortion or from prohibitions and restrictions on abortion.”
Anti-abortion activists are putting new focus on the impact of the procedure on women. Live Action, an organization that conducts undercover investigations of abortion clinics and produces documentary-style videos detailing its findings, is trying to shine a spotlight on the practice.
“Our job is to bring the controversy to the surface of the horrors happening in abortion clinics across the country, and then those horrors, once they’re brought to light, will have political consequences, sometimes criminal consequences and certainly cultural consequences,” said Lila Rose, Live Action’s president.
To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington at jdavis159@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net
Abortion Foes Led by North Dakota Help States Pushing Tough Laws
Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
People carrying pro-life balloons ride a metro bus at the March for Life rally on January 23, 2012 in Washington, DC.
People carrying pro-life balloons ride a metro bus at the March for Life rally on January 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
U.S. States Race to Win Top Ranking for Most Anti-Abortion Laws
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
While many national surveys show that a majority of Americans want abortion to be legal in all or most cases and Roe to be upheld, they also indicate that support for abortion rights falls as the fetus gestational age rises.
While many national surveys show that a majority of Americans want abortion to be legal in all or most cases and Roe to be upheld, they also indicate that support for abortion rights falls as the fetus gestational age rises. Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple
Gary Redmann/Office of the Governor via Bloomberg
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple signed the bill into law soon after it passed, along with the most far-reaching abortion restriction of any state -- a ban on the procedure that applies as soon as a heartbeat can be detected, or as early as six weeks.
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple signed the bill into law soon after it passed, along with the most far-reaching abortion restriction of any state -- a ban on the procedure that applies as soon as a heartbeat can be detected, or as early as six weeks. Photographer: Gary Redmann/Office of the Governor via Bloomberg
Texas Governor Rick Perry
Joyce Marshall/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT via Getty Images
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, has credited Americans United for Life with providing his state and others with a guide to enacting anti-abortion measures.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, has credited Americans United for Life with providing his state and others with a guide to enacting anti-abortion measures. Photographer: Joyce Marshall/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT via Getty Images
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