Bill 52-31: History - Part 2

On October 24, 2012, at a special session called by Governor Calvo, Bill 52-31: THE WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ACT OF 2011, was passed by the Legislature.

The NAYS:

1. Senator Tom Ada

2. Senator Ben Pangelinan

3. Senator Aline Yamashita

4. Speaker Judith Won Pat

THE YEAHS

1. Senator Anthony Ada

2. Senator Frank Blas, Jr.

3. Senator Benjamin J.F. Cruz

4. Senator Chris Duenas

5. Senator Judith Gutherz

6. Senator Sam Mabini

7. Senator Tina Muna Barnes

8. Senator Adolpho Palacios

9. Senator Rory Respicio

10. Senator Dennis Rodriguez, Jr.

11. Senator Mana Silva Taijeron

The bill was signed into law by Governor Eddie Calvo on 11/6/13 as P.L. 31-235. But the pro-aborts had something up their sleeve, and so far it has worked. For despite the bill becoming law, it is still, 11 months later and as of this entry, NOT YET IMPLEMENTED.

Here's why:

With the vote being forced to take place just days before the election, the pro-aborts in the legislature needed a way to appear to support the bill (to appear pro-life to the public) and then sink it after the election. They chose a way to do this they knew few would understand. They amended the bill to include a section which would require the informational materials to be subjected to the rule making process under the Administrative Adjudication Law (5GCA, Ch.9, Art.3)

To understand this better it is first important to understand that the "informational materials" are the very point of the bill. Without the informational materials (a booklet and a checklist) there is no information to give to a patient and thus no informed consent regardless of the fact that the bill was signed into law. Requiring this process as an amendment to the bill before it went to the floor enabled the pro-aborts to vote for it and see that it would never be implemented.

This is so because not only is the AAL an extremely complicated and tedious process, requiring public hearings, reports, impact statements and a host of other tasks, but the pro-aborts knew that there was no way to even begin the process because there was no way the informational materials could be engaged as rule. The informational materials are the product of the provisions and requirements of the bill and make no new rules outside it.

The strategy of the pro-life side was to accept the pro-aborts amendment in order to get the bill passed, and then seek a way to amend the law, once passed, and delete the troublesome requirement inserted as Section 4.

It was seen as a necessary compromise at the time by those who made it. But in the end, the pro-aborts' strategy worked. Esperansa had been set to go full force against the pro-aborts in the Legislature before the election and expose their hostility to pro-life legislation. But because several of them had voted for the doomed bill, we were not able to do so and most were re-elected. Meanwhile, the bill has sat just where they designed it to sit: on a desk in "the Department" (Public Health).

Governor Calvo noted this senatorial intrigue in his transmittal letter:

"It is clear under the provisions of the Administrative Adjudication Act that the "printed materials" and "checklist certification" are not "rules" or "regulations" as defined therein because they merely reduce to a distributable form the information required under the Women's Reproductive health Information Act. Thus, the requiremnt that they be subject to another protracted process that leads, once again, to the review by the Legislature, should not serve to provide senators with another proverbial "bite of the apple" to delay the implementation of this law. I cannot even begin to imagine how providing women with information to empower them to make a decision that not only impactts their psychological health, but the life within them, could ever by the wrong thing to do."

To be continued.