Pro-life fight has scored some successes

New York legalized abortion in 1970, three years before Roe vs. Wade. Kathleen Gallagher, director of pro-life activities for the Conference, told The Evangelist that the state law was passed despite the protests of Conference officials. Reams of testimony gathered from pro-life experts still fill the basement at the Catholic Conference building in Albany.

The Conference has spent two-and-a-half decades working to stem the abortion tide in many ways. One early success was in 1971, when Conference officials were instrumental in obtaining civil rights law protection for medical employees who do not wish to be involved in abortion.

Working for life

The Roe decision dealt a harsh blow to the Conference's work, said Mrs. Gallagher. Abortion was declared a fundamental right at any time during pregnancy. But in the same year, the Conference worked to enact state Health Department regulations which exclude abortion from the definition of "family planning." Those regulations are still on the books, she added with pride.

In 1974, the Conference helped to enact laws stating that abortions after 12 weeks must be performed in hospitals and, after the 20th week, a second doctor must be present to provide medical care for a possible live birth.

Unfortunately, said Mrs. Gallagher, while those laws are also still on the books, they were made unconstitutional and unenforceable by the Roe decision.

Continuing effort

The mid-1970s saw the Conference working to pass laws regulating abortion clinics on such basics as requiring smoke detectors and clean equipment, and the proper disposal of fetal remains. The latter was a crucial point in the arguments that abortion does not end a life.

"For every abortion performed in New York State, a fetal death certificate has to be filed, which certainly shows us there has been a death," Mrs. Gallagher stated.

In 1978, the Conference fought to have legislation enacted that required parental consent for abortions performed on minors. The requirement was passed by both houses of the state legislature, but vetoed by then-Gov. Hugh Carey. Mrs. Gallagher said that the Governor later called the veto one of the biggest regrets of his administration.

Keeping issue alive

The state budget was held up for more than a month in 1980, when the Catholic Conference's work led to the Senate's adopting a state budget that did not include Medicaid funding for abortion. The effort was halted in the Assembly and ultimately failed, but it did have a positive effect, said Mrs. Gallagher.

"It forced legislators to think about the [abortion] issue," she explained. "Unfortunately, there was no compromise in the end between the two houses, but it helped to educate people."

It is important to note that the Conference's 28-year fight to preserve life isn't just a matter of stopping abortion, Mrs. Gallagher said.

"At the same time the Catholic Conference has been working very hard to make abortion less available," she said, "we've been working simultaneously to make alternatives more available -- to empower women to bear their children and raise their families with dignity."

Successes

At no time was that clearer than in 1983, when the Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation was established as a state-funded alternatives to abortion program. The program has received state funding every year since its inception, said Mrs. Gallagher, "a major victory for the pro-life movement -- but every year, we have to fight for it."

The Conference's biggest success was 1989's enactment of the Prenatal Care Assistance Program (PCAP). It funds an array of prenatal services, from physician's visits to post-partum care, for women living just above the poverty line who are ineligible for Medicaid.

"We were very involved in the court battles; we filed briefs," said Mrs. Gallagher. When then-Gov. Mario Cuomo signed the legislation, she said, "It was my proudest moment."

On-going effort

The 1990s have seen staggering changes in the Conference's fight against abortion. The advent of e-mail and fax machines has made contacting legislators faster and easier for Conference staff, Mrs. Gallagher said, and eight professional lobbyists are now a part of the Catholic Conference and spend much of their time at the Capitol. The Albany diocesan Public Policy Education Network also spreads the word about the Conference's efforts.

The Catholic Conference is also taken more seriously today as a "force in the public arena," she said. "The doors in both houses are open to us, much more than they had been 25 years ago. We have been invited in many times [by the Pataki administration] to review drafts of things that will be coming up. Legislators call us much more regularly now."

Culture of death

However, the '90s have also continued the slide down a slippery slope to what Pope John Paul II terms "a culture of death."

"We've seen the abortion mentality spread out into other areas," said Mrs. Gallagher. Today, the Catholic Conference's efforts in the protection of life at all ages includes the fight against euthanasia and other practices.

"It is not politically correct to be pro-life," Mrs. Gallagher said. "It's an uphill battle to educate and persuade that protecting the unborn is the moral responsibility of the legislature."

More than ever, the Conference must parry words in that battle. The secular media often refers to the two sides of the abortion debate as "anti-abortion" and "pro-choice," said Mrs. Gallagher, but "it's not a matter of choice, and we're not just anti-abortion. We're pro-life. The woman is also exploited in an abortion. We're here to protect and love both of them."

Victories

Victories are still being recorded. The early 1990s saw the enactment of a law banning commercial surrogacy contracts in New York State -- an issue on which both sides agreed that "women should not be breeders," said Mrs. Gallagher.

Last year, the New York State law criminalizing assisted suicide was also upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Overall, the Conference's fight to protect the unborn has had its discouraging moments. "The political climate in New York State doesn't tend toward protection of the unborn," said Mrs. Gallagher, admitting disappointment at the Conference's failure to enact parental notification laws or a ban on partial-birth abortion, and concern at the future of the abortion issue in light of developing technologies.

Abortion capitol

However, she added, the Conference's successes in the past 28 years provide hope for the future.

"New York State is known in many circles as the abortion capitol of the world," she stated. "It's second only to California in the number of abortions performed. There are very few restrictions on abortion in this state. Our biggest victory is putting some kind of restrictions on that. This isn't the same thing as a tonsillectomy or an appendectomy."

At the moment, Conference lobbyists are working on expanding both the federally instituted Family and Medical Leave Act and laws that allow medical personnel not to participate in abortions. The Conference hopes that even pharmacists who do not wish to dispense the drugs that cause medical abortions will not have to do so. Partial-birth abortion and physician-assisted suicide remain hot topics in defending the culture of life, and Mrs. Gallagher said that new fertility treatments like the recently developed syringe abortions threaten younger and younger human lives.

In light of Chicago physicist Dr. Richard Seed's recent announcement that he plans to clone a human child before Congress can ban the procedure, the Conference also expects to lobby against cloning in the future.

"The whole field of human experimentation poses unprecedented risks for unborn children," Mrs. Gallagher stated. "We're going to really have to work in that area."

More to do

"If you look at what we've done in 25 years, we've done a lot!" she concluded.

She compared the Conference's work on abortion to a hotel that doesn't have a 13th floor: "You know it's there; it's just called something else. Some people are uncomfortable with abortion -- `Let's call it something different. A fetus; a product of conception.' We're trying to get them to see that there is a 13th floor."

(The New York State Catholic Conference can be reached at 434-6195. Fax: 434-9796.)

(01-22-98) [[In-content Ad]]