Abortion Test Cases

With a surprisingly strong vote in both houses, Louisiana's legislature last week overrode Governor Buddy Roemer's veto and enacted the strictest antiabortion law in the land. The measure imposes up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine for any doctor who performs an illegal abortion, although the woman undergoing the procedure would not be punished. Exceptions would be allowed only if the mother's life was threatened by pregnancy or if she had been the victim of rape or incest. Ignoring Roemer's demands for broader protections for such victims, however, the legislature added the requirement , that the alleged act of rape or incest be reported to the police within one week for the abortion to be considered legal. Said the Governor: "((The law is)) going to be expensive to litigate, impossible to implement, totally unfair to women who have been brutalized and raped."

Framers of Louisiana's bill hope it can provide the test case that will prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But Louisiana's law is competing for that distinction against existing laws in three other jurisdictions:

PENNSYLVANIA. Enacted in 1989, Pennsylvania's statute could well be the first to reach the high court because it is the furthest along in the federal appeals process. Last year a federal district court struck down provisions requiring a 24-hour waiting period, notification of the husband, and a state- sanctioned lecture from a doctor about the pros and cons of abortion. But the Pennsylvania law may not be the ideal test case for Roe. Reason: it focuses on procedural stumbling blocks to abortion rather than decreeing an outright ban, and could thus allow the court to skirt the constitutional issues.

GUAM. Although this 212-sq.-mi. U.S. territory is located in the North Pacific, 6,000 miles from California, and has a population of just 120,000, it became the center of controversy last year after enacting what was then the nation's most restrictive antiabortion measure. It outlaws all abortions except when pregnancy endangers a woman's life; violators face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for obtaining an abortion or aiding a woman doing so; doctors performing the procedure may be jailed for up to five years. A federal district court found the law unconstitutional, clearing the way for a challenge to be heard before a federal appeals court.

UTAH. Approved by Governor Norman Bangerter in January, Utah's statute permits abortions only if pregnancy results from rape or incest, if childbearing could cause "grave damage to the pregnant woman's medical health" or if the procedure is intended to prevent the birth of a child with "grave defects." The state has refrained from putting the measure into effect until a federal district court rules on its constitutionality.