
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290286
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: BOISE, IDAHO                                LENGTH: Medium

IDAHO FINDS ITSELF ABORTION WAR SITE

When Gov. Cecil Andrus returned to his office in the statehouse Tuesday afternoon, he was greeted by two dubious presents - a bill that would outlaw virtually all abortions in the state and a half-full sack of Idaho's most famous farm product.

The bill, which Andrus must sign or veto by Monday, came to him courtesy of the state Legislature, which approved it last week. It would permit abortions only in cases of incest, fetal deformity, some cases of rape or to preserve the life or health of the woman.

Passage of the bill has catapulted Idaho squarely into the center of the political battle that has raged across the country since last year's Supreme Court ruling on abortion.

The spuds were delivered by Gwen Webster, an abortion-rights supporter from Michigan, who presented them as a symbol of what she warned would be a nationwide boycott of Idaho potatoes if Andrus signs the bill.

"We love Idaho potatoes," said Webster, who is running for a seat in the Michigan Senate on an abortion-rights platform. "But we have to stop this right now. Otherwise, after Idaho comes Michigan, and then another state and another."

Andrus accepted the spuds as a token of Webster's concern and met with her for more than 20 minutes, then politely invited her and the rest of the country to butt out.

"I discussed with her our feelings in Idaho about outside influence," he told the waiting media pack. "There's been a tremendous amount of it from people outside of this state coming in here, thinking they know best what Idahoans should do. We in Idaho are perfectly capable of handling our own decisions."

Others disagree.

"Idaho is in the middle of a storm," said state Sen. Marti Calabretta, who opposed the bill. "Outside forces brought this bill to us . . . and outside forces will now punish Idaho."

Supporters of the bill readily acknowledge that it was drafted in large part by leading abortion-rights opponents in Washington in hopes of creating a test case that would lead a majority of the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized most abortions throughout the country.

"We think we've drafted a carefully balanced bill that allows abortions in the hard cases but prohibits it as a means of birth control," said the measure's chief sponsor, state Sen. Roger Madsen, R-Boise. "We'd be less than honest if we said we didn't draft this . . . with that swing vote in mind."

But abortion-rights supporters point out that the bill had its origins in model legislation presented to state anti-abortion activists at a national conference sponsored by the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, D.C., last October.

by CNB