GOP Leaders Mostly Ignore Democratic Attempts To Find Common Ground on Abortion, USA

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 03 Mar 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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Senate Democrats and abortion-rights advocates recently have "challeng[ed]" Republicans to "bridge the deep divide" in the abortion-rights debate and join forces to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies in the United States, but the calls for common ground for the most part have been met with "silence or ridicule," the... AP/Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports (Crary, AP/Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 3/1). For example, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in January in a speech to mark the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade -- the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down state bans on abortion -- called abortion "sad, even tragic" and offered "conciliatory language" that people of differing opinions could find "common ground" and work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 1/26). However, Rodham Clinton's words have received "little positive response" from Republicans and abortion-rights opponents, according to the AP/Journal Gazette. Dave Andrusko of the National Right to Life Committee has called Rodham Clinton's call for bipartisan cooperation in preventing unintended pregnancies "meaningless" and "phony." Republican leaders also have ignored a Democrat-sponsored federal measure aimed at preventing unplanned pregnancies. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, "Their idea of reducing unintended pregnancies is more sex education and distribution of contraceptives," adding, "That's not the solution, that's part of the problem." Although many Democrats "doubt" that Republican leaders will allow a vote on the measure, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Republicans would support the initiative if they were "serious" about reducing the number of abortions, according to the AP/Journal Gazette. "If they don't, it exposes how extreme and fringe their position is compared to the rest of America," she said.

Bill Details
The Prevention First measure (S 20) -- sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Rodham Clinton and 16 others -- aims to reduce the three million unplanned pregnancies that end in abortion in the United States each year. The measure, which Reid says is one of his top 10 priorities for the 2005 legislative session, would provide a "multi-pronged" approach to strengthen family planning programs and reduce unplanned pregnancies, according to the AP/Journal Gazette. The measure proposes doubling federal spending for family planning clinics to $643 million, encouraging states to subsidize family planning services for low-income women, requiring private health plans to cover prescription contraceptives to the extent that they cover other prescription drugs, promoting emergency contraception and ensuring its availability to rape survivors and requiring federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs to provide medically accurate information regarding contraceptives (AP/Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 3/1).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/repro The Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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