Senate GOP fails to revive abortion bills
Archbishop Sheehan, bishops urge Catholics to call Dems to support bills
Republicans failed Tuesday in their attempt to get abortion bills out of Senate committees where supporters fear they will die.
The bills, passed by the House last week, would ban late-term abortions in New Mexico and require parental noti- fication when minors seek abortions.
But the abortion fight is far from over in this legislative session. While Republicans were able to get the support of only one Democrat in one of the procedural votes taken in the Senate on Tuesday, Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, produced a letter signed by Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, and six other selfdescribed “pro-life” Democratic sena- tors indicating they would vote in favor of the bills. That’s nearly one-third of the 25 Democrats. If combined with the 17 Republicans, their votes would be enough to pass the bills.
Meanwhile, outgoing Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan and the two other Catholic bishops in New Mexico, according to a spokesman, have sent letters to parish priests asking them to tell parishioners to contact their senators and express support for the abortion bills.
The bills in question are House Bill 390 — which would prohibit doctors from performing abortions after 20 weeks, except in certain cases — and HB 391, which would require a doctor to notify a parent or guardian before performing an abortion on a minor. Both bills cleared the House late Friday night following lengthy and sometimes emotional debate.
On Tuesday, Sharer made a motion to pull the parental notification bill out of the Senate Public Affairs Committee and move it to the “committee of the whole,” which is legislative-speak for the full Senate. During the debate, Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, said he car-
ried a similar bill in the past, and he has come to believe that Public Affairs is predisposed to killing abortion bills.
Democrats argued that Sharer’s move would violate the committee process and would prevent the public from testifying about the bill at regular committee hearings.
Sharer, in an apparent plea to the anti-abortion Democrats, asked, “Is the committee system more sacred than life?”
The Senate voted along party lines against Sharer’s motion as well as a subsequent effort to take the bill out of Public Affairs and move it to the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee.
Sharer next moved to take the late-term abortion bill out of Public Affairs and move it to the Senate Finance Committee. In that vote, Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, joined with the Republicans in voting yes.
The letter from Griego and others was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen.
It read, “We the undersigned pro-life senators wish to honor the committee system while still being allowed to vote our conscience.” They then ask Sanchez to not assign the bill to any committees but the “committee of the whole.”
The letter continued, “These pro-life issues are strong in our communities and we feel compelled to put these issues to a vote of the entire Senate.”
The Feb. 12 letter was signed by Griego as well as Muñoz, and Sens. John Arthur Smith of Deming, Richard Martinez of Española, Carlos Cisneros of Questa, John Pinto of Gallup and Clemente Sanchez of Grants. Griego said Sharer actually wrote the letter. “He asked if he could use my letterhead,” Griego said.
Griego said Tuesday that he would vote for both bills if they made it to the Senate floor. “But I’m not going to vote to blast anything,” he said, noting, “I’m a committee chairman.” He chairs the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee. Two other committee chairmen signed the letter: Smith of the Senate Finance Committee and Martinez of the Judiciary Committee.
In general, committee chairmen are reluctant to support blasts, fearing that if such actions become common, it would erode the power of the committees. Early in the session, Senate Democrats, including Smith, stood together and vowed not to back any Republican efforts to “blast” bills.
In recent years, such moves have been rare.
But this year, with Republicans controlling the House and passing legislation that normally wouldn’t pass in that chamber, there have been two blast attempts.
Last week, Senate Republicans unsuccessfully tried to blast HB 75, the “right-to-work” bill, which on Tuesday was effectively killed in Senate Public Affairs.