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Its anti-gay initiatives derailed for nowf the OCA again turns
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L
on Mabon, chairman of the Oregon
Citizens Alliance, seems to sense that
his professional future is on the line.
“On July 5, we will ascertain the
health of our organization. I think we’re
still there,” says Mabon in the June 7 issue of The
Oregonian—one day after the OCA announced it
was abandoning its 1996 anti-gay and -lesbian
campaign.
For those of you who don’t know, July 5 is the
deadline to submit petition signatures to place
initiatives on the November general election bal
lot. Reportedly hindered by lackluster signature
gathering and frustrated by the U.S. Supreme
Court’s recent ruling against Amendment 2, the
OCA decided to drop its latest statewide anti-gay-
rights campaign. It is, however, continuing to
collect signatures for an
initiative that would se
verely restrict abortion
rights in Oregon. Some
political observers say
that if the OCA is suc
cessful in qualifying the
initiative for the ballot,
it may remain a viable
organization. If the sig
nature drive is not suc
cessful, though, that may
be the final blow to the
OCA, which has suf
fered several setbacks
during the past year.
“I am hearing some
people say, ‘Oh, the
OCA is so weak now,
they won’t be able to get
anything done,’ ” says Lon Mabon
Lisa Horowitz, execu
tive director of the Or
egon chapter of the Na
tional Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action
League, which works to protect women’s repro
ductive freedoms.
“What I say is that the OCA needs to score a
victory in order to survive, and they’ll now be able
to put all of their energy into this anti-choice
campaign. This is certainly no time to sit back and
relax,” she says.
That sentiment is echoed by Liz Kaufman,
campaign director of ProChoice Oregon, a coali
tion that includes a wide number of organizations
concerned about health, women’s issues and indi
vidual rights. Coalition members include the Or
egon Medical Association; the Oregon Nurses
Association; the Oregon Federation of Teachers,
Education and Health Professionals; state superin
tendent of public instruction Norma Paulus; Port
land Mayor Vera Katz; the American Civil Liber
ties Union of Oregon; and many others.
“With the U.S. Supreme Court decision declar
ing Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2 unconstitu
tional, the OCA sees their anti-choice measure as
the key to their survival,” says Kaufman. “While
the OCA has suffered some reverses lately, no one
should underestimate their underlying strength.
With this new development, we expect them to
qualify this extreme measure for the ballot.”
The OCA needs to gather 97,681 valid signa
tures of registered voters to place its anti-abortion
initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The measure would ban nearly all abortions
past the first trimester— 12 weeks after concep
tion— with no exceptions for the health of the
mother, rape, incest, or the discovery of fatal fetal
abnormalities. An abortion would be permitted
only to save the mother’s life. According to
Horowitz, if the measure were to pass, Oregon
would have the most restrictive abortion legisla
tion in the country.
“The OCA crafted a measure designed to jump
on the ‘late abortion’ bandwagon,” says Maura
Roche of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Or
egon. “But 12 weeks includes many early abor
tions, late abortions and those in between. This
measure is far more extreme, and far more danger
ous—it would make it much more difficult for a
woman to receive a safe and legal abortion in
Oregon.”
In addition to banning virtually all abortions
after 12 weeks, the proposed measure would grant
to any Oregon resident or nonprofit entity legal
standing to sue if they
believe this law has been
violated.
In other words, says
Horowitz, any woman or
physician even per
ceived to have received
or provided an abortion
close to the 12-week cut
off can be sued essen
tially by anyone.
The initiative would
also require the state
Legislature to “adopt
| statutes adequate to de-
< terviolations,inthenext
session after the measure
S passes. The session
| could not end until the
> new statutes are signed
£ into law.”
“So that means state
legislators would have to
pass anti-choice bills that
would then have to be signed into law by the
governor. If that didn’t happen, the Legislature
could not adjourn,” says Horowitz. “That’s outra
geous.”
Mabon is quoted as saying his group has, as of
early June, collected just 45,000 signatures—less
than half of those needed. “But the OCA’s mecha
nisms for collecting signatures are very different
from those used by the progressive community,”
says Horowitz, “We are out there gathering signa
tures in very public places. You don’t see that with
the OCA. They already have their own extensive
donor list. They work through the church network.
We must not underestimate their ability to get an
anti-choice initiative on the ballot. They did it in
1986 and 1990, and they can do it again.”
Horowitz is urging the public to get involved in
the current effort to defeat the OCA’s anti-abortion
measure.
“There’s lots to do. We need people to host
house parties, to be part of a speakers’ bureau, to be
visible at fairs and festivals,” she says. “We estimate
we’ll have to raise $1 million for this campaign.”
She adds: “The OCA has everything invested
in this measure. People in the gay and lesbian
community and larger progressive community
sometimes fail to realize that the OCA isn’t only
against gays. They are returning to their roots.
They started out attacking abortion rights, and
they’ve now come back to that.”
Anyone interested in fighting the OCA’s anti
abortion-rights initiative should contact
ProChoice Oregon at 229-0330.
I