THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290472
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Gov. George F. Allen will challenge a proposed law guaranteeing jail time for protesters who repeatedly block access to abortion clinics.
Allen wants to broaden the measure to cover any public place - not just health clinics - and wants to apply the harsher penalties only to people who use violence or threats of violence.
The plans were part of a list of changes Allen proposed Tuesday to bills passed this year by the General Assembly.
The governor offered amendments to more than 150 pieces of legislation, setting up a meaty agenda for a special assembly session on April 5. He also vetoed 11 bills, and signed the last of 700 that will become law.
Much of this year's signature legislation - including welfare reform, lowering the minimum age for student drivers and new penalties for deadbeat parents - already had been enacted.
And many of Allen's more substantive proposals - $15 million in budget cuts, funneling lottery money to local governments and financing 75 new troopers for the state police - already had been unveiled.
But the governor's final package of vetoes and amendments made clear that he will continue his less-spending, leaner-government crusade when legislators reconvene to finalize this year's lawmaking efforts.
He will ask for a total of $21.5 million in state budget cuts, most of which he would give to local governments for education, law enforcement or tax cuts. In addition to the extra money for the state police, some $2.5 million would go toward road construction.
Allen also wants to increase by $83 million the amount the state will borrow to build prisons. The extra money would finance a juvenile prison in Chesterfield County and a maximum security prison at the Red Onion Mountain site in Wise County.
Among measures he vetoed - which would need two-thirds votes of the legislature to be enacted - were a bill making it illegal for children to ride in pickup beds on highways and a measure that would allow state employees to ``bump'' less senior employees out of their jobs in case of layoffs.
As expected, Allen did not sign the bill making it easier for Virginia residents to get permits to carry concealed handguns. He issued a statement saying he supports the bill, but that he wants several changes.
Among the changes: striking a section added by General Assembly Democrats that would prohibit carrying a concealed handgun wherever alcohol is served.
Another would strike a section denying permits to anyone convicted of blocking access to abortion clinics or other health care facilities.
Allen said that provision would be unnecessary if he succeeds in broadening the clinic-access bill.
The abortion clinic issue could provoke the hottest debate at the special session. Republicans in the House of Delegates made a mighty attempt to amend the clinic-access bill during the regular session so that it would apply to all public places.
Democrats resisted, saying the measure was aimed at a specific problem - violence such as the New Year's Eve shooting at the Hillcrest Clinic in Norfolk - and that a broader statute might not be constitutional.
The bill the General Assembly passed would make people convicted twice in three years of blocking access to health care facilities serve at least 30 days in jail and pay a $2,000 fine.
Allen's amendments would make the guaranteed sentence apply only to people who used violence or threats.
``I don't think you should be picking on or singling out one group of folks,'' Allen said during an afternoon visit to Chesapeake, of his decision to broaden the bill beyond its clinic-access intent.
He called the provision prohibiting nonviolent protests in front of health clinics ``overbroad and constitutionally suspect.''
But Del. Clifton A. Woodrum, D-Roanoke, who sponsored the clinic-access legislation, said it is already illegal to block access to public places, peacefully or not. He accused the governor of playing politics with women's safety.
``Women and families fear attacks and fear violence at health care facilities,'' Woodrum said. ``I'm not aware of such problems in front of a Kmart or 7-11 or a newspaper or even the governor's mansion.'' MEMO: Staff writer Jon Glass contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Governor Allen calls the abortion clinic-access
by CNB