HOUSE BILL 228; Impassioned speeches stir debate on abortion
Jim Siegel
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Abortion-rights opponents pressed state lawmakers yesterday to pass a bill banning the practice in Ohio, but the measure still appears unlikely to go anywhere. "How I would love to be sitting in your seat to be able to say that we were the ones who stopped the killing," said Janet Folger, a former leader of Ohio's anti-abortion movement and current president of Faith2Action, a Florida organization that connects groups pushing a conservative social agenda. She said the tide is turning in favor of abortion bans. "I used to walk these halls and people would hide," Folger said of the Statehouse. "But they realized: Guess what, it turns out there are more of us than there are of them -- not to mention the fact that our folks have been having children while the other side has been aborting them." The remark drew load groans from many of the 160 people who packed the third-floor hearing room, where women outnumbered men about 2-1. Nearly 100 more sat in the Statehouse atrium listening to the hearing. House Bill 228, which opponents say is dangerous to women's health and imposes a particular religious view, would ban all abortion in Ohio and make it a felony to take a woman across state lines to undergo the procedure. Bill sponsor Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati, said he intends to have a narrow exception to save the mother, which he said can be cleared up in a substitute bill. He wants the bill to give the Supreme Court the chance to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion. Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said lawmakers should instead focus more on pregnancy prevention through comprehensive sex education and a measure requiring insurance companies to pay for prescription birth control. Rep. John J. White, R-Kettering, chairman of the House Health Committee, ended the six-hour hearing even though 60 people had yet to testify. White said he does not expect to hold a second hearing this year, a sentiment echoed by Speaker Jon A. Husted, R-Kettering. Mixing statistics and medical data with healthy doses of religion and emotion, each side crafted the kind of polished message one would expect from those involved in a fierce debate that has spanned more than three decades. One supporter of the proposed Ohio ban, Elizabeth Clyne, of Grove City, told of her horrific abortion experience when, at age 18, her fiance pressured her and sold her engagement ring to pay for it. She described the tremendous pain and said the screams of other women in the room are "buried in my mind forever." Taba Aleem, of Akron, urged lawmakers to reject the abortion ban. She told of how, at age 20, before the procedure was legal, a Cleveland factory worker used a coat hanger and a rubber tube to give her a painful abortion that later led to a serious infection. Before he would do his work, she said, the man forced her to have sex. Bill supporters talked of the trauma experienced by women who later regret their decisions. Opponents talked of the trauma of raising a child at a young age on little income -- or the pain of birthing a child that resulted from rape or incest. Rep. Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, repeatedly asked bill supporters why the ban hasn't passed yet, considering Republicans have run state government for years. He said the GOP wants to keep using it for fundraising purposes. "It's like the girl you dated in high school. You keep her around in case you can't get a date on Friday," he said. Rep. Larry Flowers, R-Canal Winchester, said the bill goes too far and needs more discussion. "I'm still very concerned about the rape and incest issues. It comes from being the father of two daughters."
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