Pa. abortion foes optimistic about policy changes under Trump

Jan. 28--As abortion opponents descended on the National Mall Friday for the movement's 44th annual rally, Pennsylvanians in the crowd described a much different tone this year with a new Republican president in the White House.

Optimism, encouragement and hope were how attendees from the Allentown Diocese described their outlook for the anti-abortion movement's policy goals with Republicans maintaining control of both chambers of Congress and Donald Trump becoming president.

"Considering what he's done in the first couple of days, and Vice President Mike Pence being here, I believe in him and trust in him," said Mohnton resident Helen MacMinn, 67, regarding Trump. "I believe we can do something to save babies' lives while he's in office."

Friday's event, held every year in Washington to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, was the first time that a vice president had addressed the crowd.

"We've come to a historic moment in the cause for life," said Pence, drawing cheers from those gathered near the Washington Monument. "Life is winning in America."

One of Trump's first acts after taking office a week ago was to sign an executive order banning U.S. aid to foreign groups that discuss abortion as a family-planning option.

Pence said more such actions would follow. Ending taxpayer-funded abortion and choosing a Supreme Court justice in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia -- a conservative Catholic who opposed abortion -- are among the administration's most important goals, he said.

A budget provision known as the Hyde Amendment already bans federal funding for Medicaid coverage of most abortions. Conservatives would like to see the rule made into a permanent law, and the U.S. House approved a bill to do so on Tuesday with a vote timed to coincide with the march.

Local Republican congressmen Charlie Dent, 15th District, Brian Fitzpatrick, 8th District, and Lou Barletta, 11th District, voted in support of the bill on the nearly party-lines vote, and Democrat Matt Cartwright, 17th District, voted against the measure.

Majority Republicans in the House and Senate would also like to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provided more than a third of the nation's abortions in 2014. Those legislators also hope to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Trump has pledged to sign both measures if they reach his desk.

Alex Pantaleo, 17, of Bethlehem Township, said he hopes to see the new administration appoint a Supreme Court justice "who believes in the right to life," which he sees as the first step to overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Hamburg resident Gail Braun said she supports efforts to prohibit federal money from going to Planned Parenthood, and would also like to see lawmakers enact tougher restrictions on the reason a woman could legally seek an abortion.

The 64-year-old retired teacher, who was attending the march for the first time, said that when she was younger, she had supported the idea of making abortion legal in order to reduce the risks to those who believed they had no other options. But her view has shifted.

"I felt it was important to make it legal so that it was safe," Braun said. "I never imagined that it would come to this, the sheer numbers."

The National Right to Life organization estimates that 58 million abortions have been performed in the U.S. since the Roe v. Wade decision. The figure is based on data from the Guttmacher Institute, a policy organization that advocates for reproductive rights, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

This year's march comes after a Guttmacher report released last week concluded that for the first time since 1975, the annual number of abortions in the U.S. has fallen to fewer than 1 million. The report's authors credited the increased use of contraception, as well as increased state-level restriction on abortion, as contributing to that decline.

Sari Stevens, executive director of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, described the current policy environment as a "scary time" for the 90,000 Pennsylvania patients served by Planned Parenthood. Some live in parts of the state where there is not another option to receive those health services.

"It's such a cruel irony that we're going to be putting these vulnerable populations at risk at a time when we're having success," Stevens said, referencing the Guttmacher report.

Americans remain deeply divided on abortion. The latest Gallup survey, released last spring, found that 47 percent of Americans described themselves as pro-abortion rights and 46 percent as anti-abortion. It also found that 79 percent believed abortion should be legal in either some or all circumstances.

The national gathering also follows last week's Women's March on Washington, in which thousands of women carried signs urging protections for reproductive rights. That event included support for abortion rights in its mission statement.

Some at Friday's event said they didn't feel like their perspective was included at the women's march, including 68-year-old Michelle Pasko Olivier, of Mertztown, Berks County, who described the prior event as "rather negative."

"I think we're able to speak more freely with President Trump and Vice President Pence because we know that we have support now," Pasko Olivier said.

There were no official crowd estimates for the march.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]

202-780-9540

Trump actions so far

--On Monday, reinstated a ban on funding of international organizations that provide abortion services or related counseling, reversing President Obama's action eight years earlier.

--Next Thursday, will announce his replacement for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; he has said he will pick only a candidate opposed to abortion.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

___

(c)2017 The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)

Visit The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) at www.mcall.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.