Reproductive freedom news最新文献

Voting 192-225 on May 14, the House defeated an effort to reverse the current prohibition on privately funded abortions at military facilities except in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest. Introduced by pro-choice Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Jane Harman (D-CA), and Mike Ward (D-KY) and mixed record Representative Peter Torkildsen (R-MA), the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 3230) would have repealed restrictive language in the statute that governs the Department of Defense (DOD). Floor action on the provision of non-government-funded abortions mirrored Representative DeLauro's failed attempts to strike the onerous provision during the mark-up process for HR 3230, which received final House approval in a 272-153 vote on May 15. The House National Security Committee voted 26-20 against removing the abortion restriction on May 1, six days after a similar 11-5 vote by the Subcommittee on Military Personnel. The near ban on abortion services has been in effect since December of last year, when the DOD spending bill was implemented; President Clinton signed the legislation permanently encoding the restriction into law in February (see RFN IV/22, V/3-4). Upon taking office in January 1993, President Clinton had issued an executive memorandum directing the Secretary of Defense to reverse the ban on the performance of non-lifesaving, privately funded abortions at military facilities, which had been instituted through agency action in mid-1988 (see RFN II/3, IV/13). The DOD authorization statute has prohibited the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of life endangerment for more than a decade.

On March 7, the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, Third Department, ruled that the husband and estate of a woman who died following an abortion performed by a physician whose license was under review cannot sue state officials for damages for her wrongful death. Writing for a unanimous five-judge panel in Negron vs. State of New York, Judge Edward Spain held that the state public health law explicitly grants immunity to members of the Board for Professional Medical Conduct's Hearing Committee and the Commissioner of Health for discretionary actions taken within the scope of their duties. Although the Hearing Committee revoked the medical license of the physician--Dr. David Benjamin--for "gross incompetence and negligence" in June 1993, he was permitted to continue practicing while he unsuccessfully appealed that determination. In July 1993, while his appeal was pending, Dr. Benjamin performed an abortion on Guadalupe Negron, who died after he tore her uterus during the procedure. The plaintiffs asserted that the Commissioner was required to summarily suspend the physician's license after the Hearing Committee's ruling and that his failure to do so was an abdication of his statutory responsibility. The court found instead that the state officials had the discretion to decide whether to immediately suspend the physician's license. In August 1995, a jury convicted Dr. Benjamin of second-degree murder; he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison the next month. CRLP filed an amicus brief in Negron vs. State of New York on behalf of the plaintiffs.

On March 18, after deliberating for approximately nine hours over two days, a Dedham, Massachusetts, jury found John Salvi guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the December 1994 shooting deaths of Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, receptionists at two Brookline, Massachusetts, women's health care clinics. Salvi was also convicted of five counts of assault with intent to murder (see RFN IV/1). Almost immediately, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara ordered Salvi to serve the maximum sentence--two consecutive life terms in prison without parole--for the murders and an additional 90-100 years for the five assaults. Under Massachusetts law, the first-degree murder convictions will be automatically appealed. In reaching their verdict, the jury of six men and six women rejected Salvi's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The five-week trial included testimony from more than 100 witnesses. In the past two years, two other men have been convicted for the first-degree murders of abortion providers: Michael Griffin, who was convicted of murdering Dr. David Gunn in March 1994, is now serving a life sentence; and Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering Dr. John Britton and James Barrett in November 1995, is on Florida's death row while his sentence is pending mandatory appeal (see RFN III/19, 22).