LOUISIANA ABORTION LAW:

Another "Akron Ordinance" Pushed Through

New York (LNS)--A Lousiana law, which went into effect September 8, includes many provisions identical to those pushed through in Akron. Like the Akron ordinance, for example, the Lousiana law requires pre-abortion counseling in which an advisor must tell the pregnant woman that her unborn child 'is a human from the moment of conception," must describe the appearance of the fetus in detail, and must warn of possible side-effects of abortion, such as depression. The Louisiana law also requires parental consent or a-court order for females under 15 and parental notice or a court order for unmarried women under 18.

Restrictive provisions unique to the Louisiana law impose expensive requirements on abortion clinics and facilities: clinics and offices where abortions are performed must pay an annual $1,000 license fee plus $500 for each physician performing abortions; must provide emergency transportation to a hospital within 15 minutes of diagnosis of medical com. plication; and must have certified medical testing laboratories and standard operating rooms. Or. alternatively, the abortion clinic must have a written agreement from a hospital no more than 15 minutes away for use of operating facilities. All abortions after the first trimester must be performed in a hospital.

ACLU lawyer Ellen Leitzer points out that Louisiana regulates virtually none of the other commonly-performed medical procedures equally, if not more, dangerous than abortion

such as

childbirth, minor surgery, or the treatment of hypertension. Pro-choice organizers and lawyers believe this discrepancy is one among many unconstitutional features, violating, in this case, the equal protection principle. The ACLU is planning to challenge the Louisiana law and is currently waiting for a ruling on its challenge to the Akron ordinance.

Other unconstitutional features of the laws, says Leitzer, who works on the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project in Washington, D.C., include: the "informed consent" description of the fetus as "human life vrom the moment of conception" which ties the law of the state to a single religious viewpoint; one-sided information telling, for instance, of possible depression following an abortion but not of possible depression following childbirth; and the parental consent provisions. (At least three federal courts have ruled in the past that there is essentially no difference between "notification' and consent from parents, Leitzer reports, while the Supreme Court has ruled that blanket parental consent is unconstitutional.)

· Convinced that they have firm legal ground to stand on, lawyers voice optimism that the Akron and Louisiana statutes may eventually be overturned. But in the meantime, local anti-abortion laws modelled on the Akron ordinance remain at the STRANGE BEDFELLOWS:

forefront of the anti-abortion crusade. Virtually identical laws have already been introduced in Boston, Chicago, Louisville and New Jersey.

Anti-Choice Lobbyist Quits

(Her Say). The chief lohbyist for the National Right to Life Committee has resigned because of the organization's new aggressive stance against the Equal Rights Amendment.

Attorney Thea Rossi Barron says she fears the group's drive against abortion, which has had a fair degree of success o. federal and state levels, will be diluted by its new concern with an unrelated issue.

Said Barron, "As an attorney, I don't see that the E.R.A. has anything to do with abortion."

Barron has represented the committee before Congress for more than two years and helped mobilize its 11 million members behind bills to limit the scope of the 1973 Supreme Court decisionon legalizing abortion.

MILITARY APPROPRIATIONS AND ABORTION?

On August 9, 1978, the U.S. House of Representatives passed not only the largest military appropriations bill to date, but also another piece of anti-abortion legislation. LNS estimates that 110,000 women will be affected by the rider attached to the military appropriations bill, which provides that abortion funding to military personnel and their dependents will be granted only when the life of the woman would be endangered by carrying the pregnancy to term. There are no provisions for women who are victims of rape or incest or who know that they will bear a deformed child,

We thank Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice

for a tally of Ohio votes:

Reps. Stokes (Cleveland), Seiberling (Akron) and Pease (Oberlin) voted against the rider.

However, Reps. Mottl, Oakar, Vanik and Stanton voted for the anti-abortion amendment. Rep. Vanik had promised the WSOPJ delegation that he would vote against all Beard and Hyde-type laws and amendments on abortion.

Editorial Note: We wonder why Rep. Vanik didn't mention the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill in his last mail-out. Let him know what you think by writing to him at the Rayburn Building, Wash., ington, D.C.

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Photos by Jo Ellen Hirsch

October, 1978/What She Wants/Page 9