House OK's bid to curb abortions

By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, July 1, 1999

WASHINGTON -- When George W. Bush faced the abortion question, he answered in noncommittal terms, suggesting it would not be a litmus test for a running mate. Elizabeth Dole was equally subdued, saying abortion is low on her list of legislative priorities.

But the effort by Republican presidential candidates to distance themselves from the abortion debate faced its first serious challenge yesterday -- not from political opponents but from the House of Representatives, where a Republican-backed measure to limit abortion rights for minors was overwhelmingly approved.

And in the coming months, as the legislation heads to the Senate and other bills are introduced, Republican candidates might find they are doing an impossible balancing act: being antiabortion and noncontroversial.

"It is the issue that won't go away," said Gary Bauer, a GOP presidential candidate who has made family values, and abortion in particular, a central campaign theme.

"Just the fact that the issue is on the Hill means it's fodder for reporters' questions," agreed Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst. "I think Bush and Dole have made it pretty clear they don't want to get bogged down talking about these more inflammatory questions. But they are going to have to respond to it whether they like it or not."

The House bill approved yesterday would make it illegal for an adult to help a pregnant teenager dodge her state's parental consent laws by going to another state. A pregnant minor in Massachusetts, for example, could no longer evade the state's abortion requirements -- that one parent give consent or a judge grant special permission -- by having an adult drive her to Vermont, where parental consent laws do not exist.

Under the bill, any adult other than the girl's parents or guardians who took her across state borders for that purpose could be charged with a federal misdemeanor. Also, parents whose daughters had abortions could file a civil lawsuit.

The legislation passed 270-159, with 206 Republicans and 64 Democrats in favor, but it fell 12 votes short of potentially overriding the veto threatened by the Clinton administration. Two members of the Massachusetts delegation, Representatives J. Joseph Moakley of South Boston and Richard E. Neal of Springfield, voted for the bill.

"It is not right to love some abstract devotion to abortion rights more than the safety and security of that child and the honor of the parents," said House Majority Leader Richard Armey of Texas. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, also from Texas, called taking a girl to another state for an abortion without her parents' permission "criminal."

Such strong terms on abortion have been excluded from the mainstream Republican presidential campaign. Bush, the front-runner, seems unharmed by accusations from the conservative wing of the party that he does not oppose abortion enough. Asked this year whether opposing abortion would be a requirement for his vice presidential running mate, Bush responded: "I rule nothing out."

But Bush might not sidestep the issue so easily as the Republican-controlled Congress continues to thrust hot-button social issues into the limelight. So far this year the House has addressed putting prayer in schools and legislating a national day of "solemn prayer, fasting, and humiliation before God." The same may be true for Dole as well as another GOP candidate, Representative John Kasich of Ohio, who according to a spokesman is "prolife but feels that the debate has become too boisterous, too divisive."

Bauer, for one, is nearly building his campaign around holding other candidates accountable for their stances on abortion.

The bill that passed yesterday, the "child custody protection act," now goes to the Senate, where similar legislation died last year. But Democrats expect the measure to pass.

Even if the White House vetoes the legislation, the ramifications could be felt among the Republican candidates. "From Bush's perspective, there is nothing he can do," said political analyst Rothenberg. "They're setting the agenda up there on Capitol Hill, and he has to react to it on the tarmac. . . . So far, he's been able to pull it off."

Connecticut

Republicans: Johnson, no; Shays, no.

Democrats: DeLauro, no; Gejdenson, no; Larson, no; Maloney, no.

Maine

Democrats: Allen, no; Baldacci, no.

Massachusetts

Democrats: Capuano, no; Delahunt, no; Frank, no; Markey, no; McGovern, no; Meehan, no; Moakley, yes; Neal, yes; Olver, no; Tierney, no.

New Hampshire

Republicans: Bass, no; Sununu, yes.

Rhode Island

Democrats: Kennedy, no; Weygand, yes.

Vermont

Others: Sanders, no.