PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Reeling from an exceptionally disappointing Election Day, Oregon's anti-abortion movement faithful are left to plot out their future course in a state that places essentially no restrictions on the abortion procedure, and where voters show no inclination to change the status quo.
Anti-abortion advocates thought they had a winning issue in parental notification, which would have required doctors to notify parents if their 15, 16 or 17-year-old daughter was seeking an abortion without their knowledge.
The issue, after all, came equipped with a TV-ready sound bite - your daughter needs your permission to get her ears pierced, so shouldn't you at least know about it if she's getting an abortion?
The measure also looked carefully tailored to appeal to Oregon voters: Parental notification is far milder than the parental consent laws in place in 23 other states, where abortions are available to teens only with parental permission.
Oregon Right to Life, the state's most prominent anti-abortion group, poured about $725,000 into the parental notification campaign, only to see a spirited campaign waged against it, spearheaded by the local Planned Parenthood chapter, which argued that the initiative could place young girls in danger.
The measure was soundly defeated, with 54.7 percent of Oregonians voting against it. Even in conservative-leaning counties like fast-growing Deschutes in Central Oregon, only a bare majority of voters supported the measure.
Anti-abortion groups also lost their staunchest allies at the Capitol when House Republicans lost control of the chamber. Victorious Democrats have spoken magnanimously of bipartisanship, but that apparently does not extend to any legislation designed to curb abortion rights.
“It looks like this is not an issue that is going to be heard from in at least the next session,” said Rep. Dennis Richardson, R-Grants Pass, who sponsored a parental notice bill in the last session which passed the House but stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. “But this is still a make-or-break issue for a lot of people on all sides of this issue.”
Gail Atteberry, the executive director of Oregon Right to Life, also acknowledged that her group does not expect to gain any traction in the upcoming session, which starts in January.
The group will consider whether other possible ballot measures could find favor with Oregonians, she said, including the 24-hour period that women in 22 others states must wait out between first seeing their doctor and getting an abortion.
But beyond that, Atteberry said, her priorities will likely be to look ahead to the 2008 elections, to see if some of the Republican-held seats lost in the Oregon House can be won back, and to continue what she terms the “hearts and minds” campaign - an effort to educate the state's residents about their position, and perhaps inspire future generations of activists.
“This is one election, one legislative session,” Atteberry said. “When you get a bigger perspective on it, focusing for the future is not a bad thing.”
Melody Rose, an associate professor of political science at Portland State University, who has researched the politics of abortion, said anti-abortion groups in Oregon can take heart from national progress on their issue. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in a later-term abortion case that wind up as a victory for anti-abortion groups, thanks to the presence of two new, conservative-leaning justices appointed by President Bush. Continue >>
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