The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Just as it’s an ill wind that sometimes does someone some good, it’s possible that someone can turn a “hero” bill into a “villain” bill in the hopes of making some money.
Or so it seems with the bill asking Washington to ban abortion at any point after a sperm fertilizes an ova. As this column explained last week, this is purely a hero bill — one which has no chance of getting a hearing, let alone passing, because it was filed after the deadline for considering such bills. It is simply designed to appeal to anti-abortion constituents of Spokane Valley Rep. Matt Shea, the sponsor, and the three co-sponsors (including Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver).
That didn’t keep NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, the political organization on the other side of the abortion debate, from using it to try to shake some money out of its supporters.
In a somewhat breathless email with “URGENT: Stop WA Abortion Ban” in the subject line, the group called the bill and a rally at the Capitol “a real threat to reproductive health care in Washington. The small but vocal minority absolutely want to take away our right to bodily autonomy and criminalize women.”
Well, that does sound terrible enough for anyone wishing to keep abortion legal to click the link and “chip in $15 to help NARAL Pro-Choice Washington take down this bill.”
That is, if they didn’t know that the rally in question wasn’t strictly about ending abortion, but included protesting the possible end to the personal exemption for vaccinations and new requirements for sex education classes in schools.
Or if they didn’t know that there’s no pressing need to “take down” a bill that is assigned to a committee where the chairwoman, Rep. Eileen Cody, is a supporter of abortion rights and has no intention of giving it a hearing — even if it were within the deadline for a hearing, which it isn’t.
Or if they didn’t know that the bill, if it were somehow to pass the Democratic, abortion-rights-supporting majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, would certainly be vetoed by an abortion-rights-supporting governor who is running for president in a party where support for a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health choices is a litmus test.
That bill doesn’t need taking down.
In its appeal, the group makes mention of a “manifesto” from Shea that it describes as a “call for Christians to use violence to end same-sex marriage and criminalize abortion.” Shea has described those writings as a compilation of sermons on biblical war in the Old Testament.
But even if NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is right about Shea’s intent, they should be tickled pink that this is how he decides to execute it, with a bill that has zero chance of becoming law.
Maybe ‘simoleons’
The Legislature is dealing with an operating budget north of $52 billion, which, as a previous story noted, is a pile of cash. During debate on the Senate’s version of the budget last week, some lawmakers struggled to come up with other words for “dollars” in underplaying amounts that many of us would consider a chunk of change.
“I’m hopeful that there might be a few shekels, somewhere in this budget,” Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, said about her request for $1.5 million for a screening program to detect and eradicate hepatitis C.
Sen. Jim Honeyford asked for $450,000 for an autonomous vehicles program at a community college outpost in Sunnyside. That’s 0.009 percent of the budget, he said, or “even less than budget dust.”
Coming up with new terms didn’t help. Both amendments failed.
Budget debate
Also during the debate over the Senate budget, a proposal to remove the sales tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers came up.
Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Christina Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, said: “Women of the entire Legislature should unite, not just on the sales tax, but on why on earth cotton and paper products cost so much.”
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