Pro-Life Bills Died This Session

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, May 13, 2011
By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim. Try as they may, pro-life lobbyists could not get a bill passed this year. You would think it would be a done deal, since the governor is a Republican, the lieutenant governor is a Republican, the Attorney General is a Republican and Republicans have a majority in both House and Senate of the General Assembly. I mention that, because the Republican Party platform is pro-life, in direct contrast to other political party platforms. With Republicans dominating state government, they can pass any bill they choose to pass.

In a non-binding question on the 2010 primary ballot, 75 percent of voters in 46 counties approved a state human life amendment. That means, voters not only want pro-life laws, they want an amendment to the state constitution, too. Since 2001, Georgia Right to Life’s political action committee has endorsed only those candidates with strong pro-life positions. 92 percent of the candidates endorsed by Georgia Right to Life won their elections in 2010, including all nine statewide constitutional officers that were elected in November.

Given those facts, you would have expected Senator Loudermilk’s S.B. 210 to pass, but it was stopped in the House Judiciary Committee. S.B. 210 clarifies the fact that a woman can sue an abortion provider if requirements of the Women’s Right to Know Act are not followed or when other existing abortion laws are violated.

If S.B. 210 had passed, a woman who is a victim of an illegal abortion could go to court and recover damages from the abortionist. That would give pregnant women the same legal rights other victims of medical malpractice already have. But that bill did not pass, despite constant lobbying from pro-life groups and voters throughout the state. So, here’s my question for today: Shouldn’t Republican politicians be held accountable for the pro-life plank in their platform? Should they be allowed to “run to the right;” then govern in the middle? That sounds a whole lot like fence-sitting to me. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.