FOCA response

Recently, a paid advertisement appeared in the Dade County Sentinel concerning The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.2020). The advertisement was, sadly, the kind of partisan, ideologically driven “wedge” we’ve come to grow weary of in our politics. It is part of a Georgia-wide effort led by state Senator David Shafer (GOP-48th District, Northern Fulton and Gwinnett) who has introduced resolution SR156 in Atlanta (http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/versions/sr156_As_introduced_LC_28_4524_2.htm) protesting the FOCA bill.

Of course, the problem is…FOCA hasn’t been introduced in the 111th Congress! The FOCA bill which Senator Shafer and his supporters are “protesting” was a U.S. Senate bill introduced in 2004.

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with Georgia’s state budget facing severe cutbacks to vital programs, a significant portion of the Republican Party seeks not solutions to our common problems, but to inflame old issues that are no closer to being resolved today than they were 40 years ago.

FOCA may be re-introduced eventually, I don’t know. And if Senator Shafer and his allies seek to oppose it, I wish them well and congratulate them for doing their civic duty as they see it. But it comes sadly as no surprise that he over-reaches in his protests concerning as yet-non-existent FOCA legislation.

In his bill, Senator Shafer states that it’s a “top priority” of President Barack Obama’s. President Obama has now been in office over a month, and his administration has introduced a number of bills, some of which have already become law…and not one mention of FOCA. During the campaign, he stated his support for the idea of FOCA, but with everything else going on, it simply isn’t a “top priority” of his or the Democratic Party at large.
Second, Senator Shafer uses the word “invalidate” to describe the effects of FOCA, as in it would “invalidate all laws, federal, state and local,” concerning abortion. The only thing is the 2004 version that no longer exists didn’t seek to do that.

Current law concerning abortion is still largely shaped by Roe v. Wade. However often opponents of abortion like to use scare phrases like “abortion on demand,” Roe v. Wade does not provide “abortion on demand.” It and subsequent rulings have provided that women have the right to have an abortion up to “viability” which is generally around the 24 week point. This is used as one of the “trimester” marking points.

So, currently, women have the right to have an abortion up through the 2nd trimester, and then they have the right in the third trimester if their health is an issue. Otherwise, Roe v Wade left the third trimester up to the states.

And FOCA does not “invalidate” this. The wording of FOCA was “To prohibit, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman’s right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.”

So, in essence, FOCA was largely symbolic. It essentially stated what already exists…a woman has a right to have an abortion up to viability, and after that, if health is an issue, that right holds. It simply attempts to state that in one legislative law, instead of a variety of court rulings. It doesn’t change the current situation at all, as the wording of the 2004 bill makes clear.

For the past 30 years, the Republican Party has led some or all the branches of government at various times. In all that time, party leaders have scarcely lifted a finger to actually do anything to prohibit abortions. That’s because it is far more valuable to the GOP as a political wedge than the actual outlawing of abortion ever would be.

A suggestion: Instead of more demagoguery on this issue, why can’t Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, work toward reducing the number of uninsured children, the number of teen and unwanted pregnancies? We all want to see those reduced, as well as the actual number of abortions. Why don’t we work together and pass legislation allowing for the teaching of abstinence and birth control to our teens? No less of an authority than Sarah Palin’s daughter has stated publicly “Abstinence-only doesn’t work!” And yet, Governor Palin and her party continue to place their ideology above the needs of young women like her own Bristol.

We want a government that works to solve the problems that government can solve, not a government driven by ideology and a desire to divide the American public in endless and unproductive squabbles.

Sincerely,
Tom McMahan
2nd Vice Chair, Dade County Democratic Committee