Anti-abortion Allies Watch as Senate Guts Partial-birth Bill By Ronald Sitton Benton County Daily Record An overflow crowd of anti-abortion supporters filled the House of Representatives visitor's gallery Wednesday to support a bill which would ban partial birth abortions. The Fire Marshal asked supporters to clear the aisles where they sat. Extra State Troopers came into the galleries as well. When asked why they were there, one trooper replied, "Because I was told to be here. You get told to go, you go." The crowd didn't have a long wait for HB 1351. When the morning hour of non-controversial bills was over, Rep. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, asked the House to remove the bill from the Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee for immediate consideration. His motion didn't get the 67 votes needed to remove the bill from committee. Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill in amended form. Hendren said he believed the amendment "gutted" his bill, partly because it would allow doctors to perform a partial birth abortion if the mother's health was at stake. The original bill would have allowed doctors to perform the procedure only if her life was at stake. Hendren said the Senate should have voted on the bill in its original form, but "they didn't want to face the people." Committee chairman Rep. Pat Flanagin, D-Forrest City, said committees do the best job of examining issues. Citizens can speak before a commitee, but are not allowed to speak before the General Assembly, he said. "We owe (state residents) good government, not hasty decisions; not knee-jerk reactions," Flanagin said. However, Rep. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, said citizens deserve a vote from their representatives on the bill as originally drafted. He noted the amendment had already been voted down by the House before the bill went to the Senate. Removing bills from committee would set a bad precedent, said Rep. Lloyd George, D-Ola. But he believed extenuating circumstances surrounded the Senate's passage of the bill, so he recommended sending the bill back to the Senate by removing it from committee for an immediate vote. Speaker of the House Bobby Hogue, D-Jonesboro, elicited cheers from the gallery when he declared a voice vote in favor of removing the bill from committee. The cheers died when the subsequent roll call failed to pass the motion. The bill will be examined in committee today. Across the Capitol, the Senate passed four bills affecting the Department of Corrections. "The first will kill you at the fence, the second will feed you fresh vegetables, but if you're outside working and try to escape, (the fourth) will kill you," said Sen. Wayne Dowd, D-Texarkana, who spoke for the bills in the Senate. HB 1370 would allow high voltage electric fences to be installed around medium and maximum security correctional facilities. The bill passed by a 26-3 vote with six Senators not voting or voting present. Two 12-foot chain link fences topped with concertina wire would line each side of the electric fence to deter prisoners or the public from approaching. The electrical current would be strong enough to kill any potential escapees, Dowd said. Similar fences in California have stopped escapes and attempted escapes, Dowd said. In addition, fences would fix an outdated guard tower system and save money in guard salaries. Sen. Mike Everett, D-Marked Tree, said many prisoners are dyslexic and might not be able to read danger signs. Also, there are not enough prisoner escapes to warrant putting up the fences, he said. "This is a draconian measure," Everett said. "We're getting further out on the lunatic fringe." HB 1379 would allow the Department of Community Punishment to make direct purchases of perishable food without going through state purchasing, Dowd said. The bill passed by a 30-0 vote with five Senators not voting or voting present. HB 1299 would require inmates to repay victims before they could receive money for damages awarded through court decisions. The bill passed by a 34-0 vote. HB 1376 would allow deadly force to be used against escaping prisoners outside a prison unit and by guards at privately contracted prisons. The bill passed by a 28-3 vote with four Senators not voting or voting present. Two privately contracted prisons should open soon for maximum security prisoners, Dowd said. Without the bill, those prisons' guards would not be able to shoot at fleeing felons. In other Senate news, HB 1229 passed by a 30-2 vote with three Senators not voting or voting present. The bill would increase the penalty to a Class D felony for the manufacturing, advertising or selling cable boxes which descramble cable television services. Possession of such a box is still a misdemeanor. Cable companies may soon start "amnesty" campaigns where residents can bring in their illegal boxes and begin renting a legal box without facing charges, said Greg Yielding, President of the Arkansas Cable Telecommunications Association. "A lot of people don't realize (the boxes) are against the law in the first place," he said. This article gave me the background which led to another article one month later. This story appeared in the Feb. 27, 1997, issue of The Benton County Daily Record.
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