Sunday, March 29, 1998

Abortion to play major election role

By Steve Ray

Anti-abortion advocates are quietly targeting judicial races and a contest for the attorney general's office in an attempt to restrict legalized abortion.

Abortion advocates are doing the same thing to stop what they see as a secretive effort to clamp down on women's rights.

Just when Texans thought they might get through a political campaign without a divisive debate on abortion, things are beginning to change.

Abortion has already become an issue in several races, but it is in the attorney general's race where it has drawn the most fire.

The question is why is it an issue? After all, there has been little public debate over abortion during recent months.

And decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have limited any action to regulation of abortion with such laws as parental notification and how family planning workers should counsel pregnant women.

But there is probably no issue that divides Texans more than abortion. The Scripps Howard Texas Poll in 1997 showed 50 percent of Texans thought abortion should be legal, and 41 percent thought it should be against the law.

Analysts said some Texans view that as a deciding factor on how they will vote — and those folks go to the ballot box. The poll showed that could mean 23 percent of the voters. That's the number who thought abortion was one of the most important issues in the state.

It could prove particularly important to abortion and anti-abortion advocates because candidates who are elected will determine how judges interpret and how an attorney general defends Texas laws on abortion.

Bill Price, one of the state's leading anti-abortion leaders and a Republican, put it this way:

"No matter which side of this issue you are on, you are going to have an interest in which judges are elected all the way from district court judges to the state Supreme Court.

"There is going to be more legislation regarding abortion passed and more taken to court by the pro-choice movement. Once pro-life legislation gets passed, we will see a much better chance of having it upheld if people are in office who are sympathetic to our cause."

The importance of electing judges and an attorney general became even more evident this month with two important rulings in Texas and Washington, D.C.

An Austin district judge upheld a state law that allows taxpayer money to be used for abortions only in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's life.

Abortion advocates argued the law discriminated against poor women because Medicaid paid for prenatal care and childbirth but not abortions.

The state argued Texas was not obligated to subsidize abortions.

The ruling was a significant victory for anti-abortion advocates, despite the fact the case will be appealed.

Abortion advocates drew some solace from a national case the same week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive an Ohio law that would bar women from ending some late-term pregnancies.

As leaders on both sides of the abortion question begin to realize the importance of the elections on the issue, they are lining up behind candidates.

Most anti-abortion leaders support Railroad Commissioner Barry Williamson in the Republican run off for attorney general. Williamson has said he only supports abortion when the mother's life is in danger. His opponent, former Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn, includes rape and incest as possible exceptions.

Few anti-abortion leaders are willing to support former Attorney General Jim Mattox, who is the Democratic nominee for the post. Mattox, a Southern Baptist, says he personally opposes abortion but believes a woman must make that decision after consulting a counselor of her choice and God.

As attorney general in the 1980s, Mattox shut down a family planning clinic that illegally tried to convince women not to have abortions, and he sided against those who were improperly picketing abortion clinics.

And he says as attorney general he is going to enforce the law, and that basically means legalized abortion.

As the November campaign draws nearer, abortion is expected to become more of an issue. Whether it becomes an open issue that divides the voters is questionable. But behind-the-scenes, both sides of the debate are expected to spend thousands of dollars and lots of hours working to elect people who support their cause.

Steve Ray is chief of the Scripps Howard Austin Bureau.