Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990 TAG: 9003222535
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: ELLEN GOODMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But this week Guam made the news with a shocker of a very different order. On Monday, Gov. Joseph Ada signed into effect the most restrictive abortion law on American territory.
With the stroke of a pen, abortion became illegal except when a woman's life is in danger. There is no abortion for rape. No abortion for incest. No abortion for a fetal deformity.
Today in Guam, anyone who provides an abortion can be charged with a third-degree felony. Anyone who has an abortion is committing a crime. Anyone who gives information about abortion is liable for a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.
Indeed while both pro-choice and pro-lifers had their eyes and energies focused on the action in state capitols, the legislature in this 209-square-mile island with 150,000 people passed the first full-fledged legal challenge to abortion rights since the Webster case.
Since American citizens are afforded the protection of the Constitution whether they live in a territory or a state, a constitutional challenge can begin in Guam as well as Idaho. This territory 3,000 miles west of Hawaii may give the Supreme Court its next chance to overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision.
What to call this surprise attack from the Pacific? Janet Benshoof of the American Civil Liberties Union dubbed it a "Pearl Harbor for women" as she headed off, Marine-style, to mobilize a defense.
The bill in question came from the pen of Elizabeth Arriola, a member of the Guam Legislature, with the blessings of the Catholic Church. The archbishop of this territory, which is 90 percent Catholic, vociferously threatened to excommunicate any senator who voted against it.
The attorney general and prosecutor of Guam, Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson, warned the governor that, in her opinion, the law was unconstitutional. He signed it anyway saying, "In my heart, I believe that a fetus is a human being." Barrett-Anderson is now compelled to enforce it.
Re-enter Janet Benshoof. Hours after the bill was signed, Benshoof gave a speech to the Guam Press Club. She deliberately told the women of Guam where they could get an abortion.
Benshoof read aloud from the Hawaii Yellow Pages to the press and medical audience. This isn't normally a controversial text. But the new law bans speech as well as medical procedures. Among the audience were three investigators who taped her words. She was later served with a complaint.
On Wednesday, Benshoof was arraigned in court for violating the law. At this writing, it is entirely possible that the ACLU lawyer, last seen arguing a case before the Supreme Court, will next appear as a defendant.
The Guam law doesn't fit any definition of a compromise. It's pure anti-choice. The American women who need abortions in Guam can't drive across the state line for medical services. The more than 12,000 military and family members can't get the medical care they could get at home. It costs $600 just to fly to Hawaii, the nearest state.
Of course, the law could go down in defeat in November when a vote is scheduled. It could be overturned by a lower court. It could also be overturned by Congress, which retains power over territorial laws. But if the Supreme Court membership changes any more, this could be the case that lets them undo Roe. "They are playing Pacific Roulette," says Harvard constitutional scholar Larry Tribe.
Benshoof, on her way to be arraigned in Guam, said with incredulity, "This is part of the United States, and now you can't speak about abortion here."
In the frantic few days Benshoof has spent on the island, she has met women whose appointments were canceled, including one who is pregnant with a severely deformed fetus. She has also seen the alarm of Guam's women and doctors, who were nearly as surprised as people in the states.
Guam is not the only place in the world to have passed such a radically restrictive bill. In Ireland, too, it is illegal to have an abortion or tell a woman she could get one in England. But a doubt has lingered in American minds: Can it happen here?
Erase that doubt. Guam is here.
\ The Boston Globe/Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB