Sue Lani Madsen: Democrats may regret focusing on abortion in governor’s race

In 1970, Washington voters passed Referendum 20 and made abortion safe, legal and – let’s hope – rare in the state. Subsequent legislatures have added additional protective language to satisfy the pro-choice majority.

No governor has the ability to change those laws.

And yet Attorney General Bob Ferguson keeps waving the red flag of abortion rights in the race for Washington governor. His attempts to paint former Rep. Dave Reichert as an abortion extremist are transparent political manipulation of voters’ emotions.

Ferguson repeatedly claims three congressional votes taken by Reichert deserve the label anti-choice. Reichert supported the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in 2013, 2015 and 2017. The law never passed. It has been used by political activists against Democrats who killed the bill as heartless toward babies and characterizing Republicans who supported the bill as heartless toward women.

Reichert released this statement on Twitter in response to the Ferguson campaign’s manipulation: “I won’t (and legally can’t) change Washington abortion laws. I believe a woman’s medical decisions should stay between her and her doctor.”

The Ferguson campaign has been running television ads seeking to inflame passion around what is essentially a nonissue in the governor’s race. The Reichert campaign’s attorney recently sent a cease and desist order to KING-5 in Seattle. The letter reads in part:

“Under current state law, abortions may not be performed once the fetus is viable, except to protect the health of the mother, and it is a class C felony to provide one outside of these circumstances. … As of 2018, unborn children were generally considered viable at 23 weeks. Thus, the legislation that the Advertisement asserts would ‘ban’ and ‘outlaw’ abortion would only reduce the period when abortions are permitted by approximately three weeks in most cases.”

Viability is a somewhat vague term, and it has changed greatly since Referendum 20 passed in 1970. Babies born at 20 weeks increasingly survive, if they have advanced care available. Assuming Ferguson also supports current Washington law, he supports the same conditions for a ban on abortion as Reichert.

When Referendum 20 passed in 1970, false negatives on pregnancy tests weren’t unusual for the first 12 weeks and ultrasounds to check fetal development were rarely offered. Depending on how the question is asked, Americans favor limits on abortion based on viability, or favoring something closer to the European standard of 12 weeks. Fifty years later we know so much more and so much sooner than 12 weeks after conception about how a fetus grows.

Continuing advances in medical technology raise new dilemmas. The Wall Street Journal dug into viability in an article published Aug. 7. The accepted standard of care is to require life-saving intervention for babies born alive on or after the 25th week. Babies younger than 20 weeks in the womb can’t be saved, yet. But what about the 8,000 or so babies born between 21 and 24 weeks this year?

Lacking a robust national discussion on when human life and human rights begin, the decision on when to provide care between 21 and 24 weeks depends on access to a Level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Lacking access, parents of premature infants born before 25 weeks may not be given an option. Parents in Spokane have the right and responsibility to make choices on behalf of their child, whether comfort care for a desperately ill baby or aggressive intervention with a chance for a normal life. Other parents don’t have those choices.

In a morally advanced society, caring for babies shouldn’t be about access to health care. It should be about respecting the value of human life regardless of age or location. And there are many points of common ground in a divided society, if we drop abortion as a campaign weapon.

For Ferguson to continue to push abortion as a leading issue may backfire. Washington voters across all political categories identify cost of living as their top issue, a poll result reinforced by the support for initiatives to reduce taxes, fees and regulatory costs imposed by the governor and legislature.

Executive branch actions driving the economy are definitely under the control of the governor. Abortion isn’t on the ballot, cost of living is.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.