Reverberations from anti-abortion law

anti-abortion law

A Federal Court judge has ruled Guam’s new legislation unconstitutional

By David North

GUAM’S sweeping anti abortion law, toughest under the US flag, has been ruled unconstitutional by a Federal District Court judge. It is not yet known if Governor Ada will appeal.

Judge Alex Munson ruled that the Guam law violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution as interpreted in a landmark US Supreme Court ruling Roe V Wade. That ruling, now under attack by conservative forces, held that states could not deny women the right to an abortion; it held that the US Consti tution guarantees a right to privacy, which would be violated by anti abortion legislation.

Earlier this year, under the threat of excommunication by Guam’s strong minded bishop, the Guam Territorial Legislature unanimously passed a law which prevented abortion under virtu ally all circumstances such laws usually make exceptions for women who have suffered from rape or incest and made it a separate crime to inform a woman that she could have an abortion.

The one exception was if the pregnant woman’s life was in danger, and if that were confirmed by two physicians.

Although his Attorney-General warned him that the law was unconsti tutional, Governor Joseph Ada signed the bill into law. It was promptly challenged in court by the pro-Choice forces on Guam, aided by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The bill was suspended by the courts pending disposition of the suit, and Guam received some rough treatment in the Mainland media.

The principal reason for the negative coverage was the provision that it was a misdemeanor to inform a pregnant woman of her opportunity to secure an abortion. Many saw that as a violation of the freedom of speech and of the Press.

A visiting ACLU lawyer, Janet Benshoof, immediately invited arrest by violating that provision of the new law at a public meeting. She did so by reading a section of Honolulu’s telephone book listing abortion clinics. She was charged with a violation and then, facing sure defeat in court, Guam dropped charges.

Munson’s ruling was not unexpected he had judiciously commented earlier that the law was clearly unconstitutional but it set off a series of reverberations in Guam, and on the Mainland, along the following lines: Guam-Mainland Relations. The Territory’s lawyers had sought to defuse the issue, and to avoid the decision they saw coming from Judge Munson, by agreeing that such a law would be unconstitutional on the Mainland, but that it was alright on Guam because it was not covered by the US Constitution in the same way the Mainland was. They also argued the Territory had a right to make decisions on such matters without Mainland interference.

The thrust of the Guam argument on

It was a misdemeanour to inform a woman of her opportunity to secure an abortion

the constitution was this: when the Guam Organic Act was passed by the US Congress in 1968 it extended the cover age of the 14th Amendment to the island, but the interpretation of the meaning of the 14th Amendment that applied to Guam was that existing at the time.

Since Roe V Wade was not decided until four years later, that expanded interpret ation did not apply. Judge Munson dismissed this, saying that the Supreme Court ruling in Wade applied to the island as well as to the Mainland.

While Guam’s power to pass anti abortion legislation has been vetoed, for now, things are different in the nearby Northern Marianas. The Marianas con stitution carries a provision that the CNMI legislature can pass a law outlaw ing abortion; but it has chosen not to.

Guam Politics. Munson’s decision quashes a referendum that would have taken place in the November election on the abortion law; the pro-Choice forces on Guam regard this turn of events with mixed emotions. While they are pleased that the judge ruled against the law, they would have preferred to have defeated

the bill at the polls, showing off their political clout.

It is not quite clear how the decision will affect the race for Governor, since both Ada and his Democratic opponent, Senator Madeleine Bordallo, have sup ported the bill.

Further, the Governor (unlike his opponent) must decide whether or not to appeal to the decision. If he does it will be expensive; arguments before the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, then the argument before

the body in Washington.

If he doesn’t appeal he disappoints those who want the decision reversed.

Mainland Abortion Politics. The anti-abortion, or pro-Life, forces on the Mainland will not want the court decision to stand, and if there is an appeal they arc sure to offer financial and other support to the Territory.

The pro-Life forces are eager to get a state-passed anti-abortion bill up to the

Supreme Court, hoping its evolving,

more conservative membership will vote to repeal Wade. (The Supreme Court cannot rule on cases not brought before it, and some state’s anti-abortion law will need to be appealed to its level for the Court to resume the issue.) If Wade was repealed by the Court, state legislatures would have the right to pass laws limiting the right to, or abolishing, abortion.

The pro-Lifers, however, probably would prefer a gentler, easier-to-defend bill when it gets to the highest US court.

A bill without the freedom of speech problem would be helpful, like one that allowed abortions in the cases of rape and incest. The pro-Choice group, in no rush to see the Supreme Court rule on Wade, may see the Guam law as unattractive enough to be a blessing in disguise.

The Arriola Family. How will all this affect the Arriola family? Senator Elizabeth Arriola, long-time Democratic member of the Territorial Senate, is up for re-election this Fall and her sponsor ship of the anti-abortion bill has given her prominence. How will the ruling affect her relations with her daughter, Anita, one of Guam’s few female lawyers, who played a key role in the struggle to overrule her mother’s legislation?

A partial answer to the first question came in the September 1 primary election, in which Democratic and Re publican voters on Guam chose their candidates for the Legislature. Both parties nominated slates of 21 candidates to run at large; those with the most votes on each slate usually win in the Novem ber election. Senator Arriola, though nominated for another term, did not run as well as in the past; several Democratic candidates who arc not currently sena tors got more votes in the primary. It is not clear, however, how her showing related to the abortion issue. □