Posted on 06/03/2007 3:43:06 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A vow to pass a new state ban on so-called partial birth abortion and what looks like an attempt to delay progress on a bill that would provide emergency contraception to rape victims signals a renewed push by state Republican leaders to pursue the controversial social agenda that dominated the last legislative session.
Since losing control of the state Senate this fall, Republican lawmakers have shied away from the issues of abortion, birth control and gay marriage that only recently headed their legislative agenda.
But soon after Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued an informal opinion Thursday that Wisconsin's ban on an abortion procedure known in medical circles as dilation and evacuation was unconstitutional, Republican leaders said they would introduce a new bill to outlaw the practice. Also on Thursday, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, referred to the Judiciary and Ethics Committee a bill that would require hospitals to dispense the morning-after-pill to rape victims.
Supporters of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims bill are critical of the referral because they believe Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin, who chairs the committee, will sit on the measure without taking action. Gundrum has been endorsed in his campaigns for the Assembly by Pro-Life Wisconsin, a group that opposes all forms of birth control. Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Family Action Inc., formerly Family Research Institute of Wisconsin, are the only two groups who registered with the state Ethics Board against the bill. The Milwaukee Guild of the Catholic Medical Association also announced its opposition late Friday.
Fifteen groups, on the other hand, have registered in support of the bill, including the Wisconsin Public Health Association, Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, American College of Nurse-Midwives and American Civil Liberties Union.
"It seems to me Assembly Republicans have jump-started their war on women," said Josh Wescott, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit.
"On the same day they are floating (a partial birth abortion ban) again, they have essentially told women who are raped in Wisconsin that it's too bad you were at the wrong place at the wrong time. You are now stuck to relive your tragedy forever."
The contraception bill was "referred to a committee that has absolutely nothing to do with public health," Wescott added, "just to appease to their extremes."
Neither Gundrum nor Huebsch returned repeated calls for comment.
The emergency contraception bill passed the state Senate two weeks ago on a 27-6 vote, with nine of the Senate's 15 Republicans supporting the bill. The bill seemed to be gaining momentum, especially when Rep. Terry Musser, R-Black River Falls, agreed to be the lead sponsor an Assembly version of the bill and two other Republicans, Rep. Jeffrey Wood, R-Chippewa Falls, and Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, signed on as co-sponsors.
All three consider themselves pro-life.
The bipartisan support is likely a direct result of a change of heart by Wisconsin's bishops, who are not opposing the bill. When the bill was introduced last session, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference opposed it. Wisconsin Right to Life is also not weighing in.
Mike Murray, a policy specialist with the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, is still hopeful the bill will advance in the Assembly, despite its referral to the Judiciary committee.
"I hope it's not an indication the bill is not going to receive a full hearing or full consideration by the Assembly," Murray said Friday.
He said polls show more than 80 percent of Wisconsin residents favor the bill. "To most people this seems like both the morally correct thing to do and a commonsense piece of public policy."
The bill also could have been referred to the Assembly Health and Health Care Reform Committee and Public Health Committee. But Capitol insiders say Gundrum has been actively lobbying Huebsch to have the bill sent to his committee.
Musser said there are enough votes in the state Assembly to "overwhelmingly" pass the measure and he hopes the bill was not sent to committee to die.
"My intent is and always has been that I want an up or down vote on this one," Musser said. "You want to vote against it, that's why we have the red buttons. But I just think it's too important to try and pigeonhole. So I'm hoping that's not the case."
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, one of the six Republican senators who voted against the compassionate care bill, said through a spokesman he would soon begin work on a new state ban on partial birth abortion.
"I think it's certainly something we would hope to have drafted during this legislative session," spokesman Mike Prentiss said Thursday.
Sue Armacost, policy director for Wisconsin Right to Life, said a new state ban was needed to take partisan politics out of the equation.
"The priorities of federal prosecutors are going to vary depending on the administration that is in power," she said. "So depending on who is our next president, we don't know how much of a priority they would put on these types of cases for their federal prosecutors."
Prentiss said he expected the same kind of bipartisan support from senators who, in 1997, approved the partial birth abortion ban 28-6. Eight Democrats who still serve in the Senate, including Robson, voted for the bill at the time.
But Robson is not eager to support a new state ban.
Wescott said a federal ban on partial birth abortion, which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in April, makes a state law unnecessary.
"It's already the law of the land, for better or for worse," Wescott said. "If it's already federal law, can't we just let the federal law stand and get to the issues of real working folks, like jobs and lowering property taxes?"
"...and get to the issues of real working folks, like jobs and lowering property taxes?"
ROFLMAO. Yeah. The Dems are REAL good at tackling THOSE issues.
What a mess our state politics are in. There's no way in my mind that these two items should be linked at all.
Partial-Birth abortion is horrific. It has nothing to do with "the morning after" pill that this state wants handed out to any teenager that wants it with no parental consent or knowledge of what their kid is up to.
It's not just your state politics, it's everywhere. The GOP nationally is more screwed up than any time in recent history.
Don’t worry Wisconsin DEMs... come election time you know what works.. hand out free cigarettes and food, drinks and gather up the feeble minded (and a few dead registered corpses) and off ya go to the polls.
That was my exact question.
Yep. They’re all just wasting our time and tax dollars on this. When the WI GOP actually MOVES, they always move in the wrong direction, anyway. What an ineffective lot we’re stuck with led by a corrupt, ‘Rat Governor.
Grrrrr!
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