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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 13
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Fonda makes guest appearance at Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jane Fonda made a guest appearance at the state Capitol on Tuesday to discuss initiatives to reduce teen pregnancy and support young mothers with state lawmakers.
In 1995, Fonda founded the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, an organization that seeks to address some of the underlying social problems such as poverty and child abuse that can lead to adolescent pregnancy.
Last year, G-CAPP unveiled its goal of reducing teen pregnancies statewide by 15 percent by 2015. The campaign also coordinates programs such as the Doula Project, an initiative that pairs a pregnant teen with an older woman from her community for advice and support during pregnancy, childbirth and the first few weeks after delivery.
“There’s a lot they can do,” Fonda said about state lawmakers and their ability to help reduce teen pregnancies across the state.
She said Georgia’s legislators can maintain funding for PeachCare, the state’s health insurance plan for the children of working-class families. The two-time Academy Award winning actress said she would also like to see more investment in prevention programs, and initiatives that create safe homes for young mothers and their children.
Fonda - without even being present - created a stir under the Gold Dome last year.
When former state Sen. Steen Miles (D-Decatur) introduced an honorary resolution to honor the actress for her work with G-CAPP, some lawmakers had a visceral reaction.
Miles’s resolution initially passed, but then Sen. John Douglas (R-Covington) asked his colleagues to reconsider their vote, citing Fonda’s anti-Vietnam War activism more than 30 years ago.
Miles said that Fonda did not ask for the honorary resolution. The lawmaker attempted to withdraw the resolution, saying she received a call from Fonda’s office asking her to do so. But lawmakers forced a vote, defeating the resolution by a vote of 38 to 1.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Miscellaneous
Bill promotes non-embryonic stem cell research
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia lawmakers once again are pushing a proposal to allow any woman who gives birth in Georgia to donate postnatal tissue and fluid to an umbilical cord blood bank or network of such banks for non-embryonic stem cell research.
Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) introduced a bill Tuesday that would establish a Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood Bank in Georgia. All hospitals in the state would be required as of June 30, 2009, to inform pregnant women about the opportunity to donate postnatal tissue and fluid to the bank.
Senate Bill 148, if approved, also would create a 15-member commission to oversee the blood bank. Finally, the proposal offers a tax break to Georgians who contribute to non-embryonic stem cell research.
The bill does not include a ban on embryonic stem cell research or human cloning, but it contains language that expresses reservations about the use of embryos for stem cell research. Notably, the bill states that embryonic stem cell research has been “hampered by difficulties” and that embryonic stem cells have a tendency to mutate into cancers.
It also states that the public policy of Georgia will be to encourage the donation, collection and storage of non-embryonic stem cells for scientific treatment and medical research.
“I believe the cutting edge of science has shifted to pre-natal amniotic stem cells,” Shafer said Tuesday. “They are as potent as embryonic stem cells and easier to control in the laboratory.”
Shafer introduced a similar bill last year that created considerable controversy. The parts of the bill that established an umbilical cord blood bank received near universal support from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Georgia’s scientific community, advocates for patients with degenerative and chronic diseases, and conservative Christian groups. Human umbilical cords and placenta contain a type of stem cell that has been used to treat diseases.
A ban on human cloning —- a process not yet achieved and widely denounced by scientists and religious leaders alike —- also won wide support.
But a section of the measure that would have banned therapeutic cloning —- a process that many scientists argue may someday hold the cure for diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer and spinal cord injuries —- concerned many individuals and patient advocacy groups.
Shafer eventually removed the controversial language, and the bill passed the Senate and then the House on the final day of the session. The measure needed to come before the Senate for a final rubber-stamp of approval - but the clock ran out.
Gov. Sonny Perdue issued an executive order that resurrected some parts of the bill, but that order will sunset at the end of the year. Shafer said he wants his proposal to gain Legislative approval and become law.
Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta), a strong supporter of both adult and embryonic stem cell research, said that he thought Georgia “can do better” after reading Shafer’s bill.
“This bill is fine as far as it goes, but turns a cold shoulder to some of the most promising research,” Adelman said. “ I think adult stem cell research is important, but should not be pursued to the exclusion of embryonic stem cell research. This bill ignores the potential of embryonic stem cell research and disturbingly suggests it should be discouraged.”
Adelman said he soon plans to introduce a bill similar to one he pushed last year that encourages embryonic stem cell research in Georgia.
Permalink | | Categories: Health Care
Groups seek increased family planning funding
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Planned Parenthood of Georgia and several other groups and individuals who support abortion and women’s reproductive rights lobbied at the state Capitol Tuesday to ask lawmakers for more family planning funding, comprehensive sex education, and greater access to emergency contraception and vaccinations against human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer.
The organizations kicked off their lobby day with a rally on the front steps of the Capitol. Several students from various college and universities braved the chilly weather to show their support for issues such as sex education that goes beyond abstinence-only lessons in high schools.
“We need quality sex education in schools,” said Gabrielle Micale, 21, a senior at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. “Women need to know about their own bodies to protect themselves. I don’t think abortion would be such a big problem if women knew how to protect themselves.”
Other groups at the rally included NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, Georgians for Responsible Health Education and the Feminist Women’s Health Center. Almost all of the speakers at Tuesday’s rally repeated said they wanted lawmakers to support and provide funding for pregnancy prevention programs.
Those types of programs, several speakers argued, would reduce abortion rates more than measures backed by abortion groups such as Georgia Right to Life that seek restrictions on emergency contraception and require a women seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound and then choose whether or not to view the images.
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee is scheduled to consider Senate Bill 66, an abortion-related ultrasound bill on Thursday. House Bill 147, a very similar measure, already has had one committee hearing, but lawmakers did not vote on the issue. The Senate last year approved a similar measure, but it did not pass the House.
Kay Scott, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Georgia, said that lawmakers should pass legislation that will help women and improve their health care.
“We don’t need Georgia legislators to regulate our private parts,” Scott said to loud cheers.
Several lawmakers, including state Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta), Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell), also spoke in support of family planning funding, comprehensive sex education and HPV vaccinations.
“I wasn’t taught about sexually transmitted diseases or contraceptives until I was in a college biology class,” said Haley Shank, 21, a senior at Georgia Southern University. “Even then, all the information wasn’t correct. People don’t know how to protect themselves, and the state is recommending they not learn We need this information.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Health Care
Bill would block car tags for illegals
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday designed to close a license plate loophole and make it harder for illegal immigrants to drive in Georgia.
SB 38, sponsored by Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), would force license plate applicants to furnish a Georgia driver’s license or Georgia ID card.
Currently, applicants who claim they are new to the state can obtain an auto tag and registration using a foreign or out-of-state driver’s license. That has allowed people who are in the country illegally - and therefore unable to secure a Georgia driver’s license - to obtain a license plate and drive state roads undetected.
SB 38 would exempt college students, military personnel and other special cases. It passed 50-0 with no debate Tuesday, sending the measure over to the House for consideration.
The bill is among several in this year’s General Assembly that would make it harder for illegal immigrants to drive in Georgia. One measure that passed the Senate last month would increase the penalties for driving without a license. Another would ratchet up the penalties for fraudulently obtaining a Georgia driver’s license or tag.
Permalink | Comments (61) | Categories: Immigration
Measure to honor black leaders shelved again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Proposals to hang portraits of Coretta Scott King and five other African-American civil rights leaders in Georgia’s State Capitol were sent back to the drawing board today, angering black lawmakers who have been pushing the measures for the past two years.
Some of the lawmakers suggested opponents are using delay tactics against their proposals to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s late wife and others, including Rosa Parks. Similar proposals died in the House last year.
“How long are we going to run this race?” Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam (D-Riverdale) asked the House Special Rules Committee this morning after it suggested she redraft her bill and resubmit it next week. “Is this a put-off technique?”
The committee told Salaam the Legislature no longer has the authority to hang portraits in the Capitol. That power now rests with the state’s Capitol Arts Standards Commission, which the Legislature created last year to oversee artwork in the building.
But Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue has not appointed his three members to the 15-member panel, including the chairman, said Special Rules Committee chairman Calvin Hill (R-Canton).
“We all have the ability to slow down and bury things,” Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway), chairman of Georgia’s the Black Legislative Caucus, told the Hill and the rest of his committee this morning.
“I’m sending a message to all good thinking members of the Legislature that the question ‘How long?’ has got to be answered,” Williams said. “Put it on the floor and let us vote it up or vote it down. And let Georgians see who wants to and who does not. That’s the process. Let’s not bog this down.”
Hill said he would write a letter to Perdue, urging him to appoint his members to the panel so it could start meeting. A spokesman for the governor said Perdue decided on his appointments last week and will likely announce them before the end of this week.
Hill also suggested that the proposals honoring the civil rights leaders be redrafted in the form of requests to the arts commission.
“It is not the intention nor the desire of this committee to hold anything back,” Hill said. “And I take a little bit of umbrage that anybody would consider us doing that. What we are trying to do is follow the law, follow it appropriately, so these can go forward in a proper manner.”
The chances of these measures passing the Legislature this year were already uncertain before today’s committee meeting. The director of the Capitol Museum has said no room is left in the building for additional portraits. And House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said he has concerns about the measures.
Similar proposals died in the House last year after Richardson said he had “reluctance to hang very many photos” of people who are not elected and are not from Georgia in the state’s Capitol.
State Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, has complained about the “lack of diversity” displayed in Georgia’s Capitol.
The state’s Capitol art collection includes 296 portraits, plaques, statues and sculptures, some of which are in storage. Of the 93 portraits now on display in the Capitol, only five depict African-Americans, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said Dorothy Olson, director of the Georgia Capitol Museum and Capitol Tours.
Brooks, Abdul-Salaam and several other lawmakers want to change that. They want to put up portraits of King’s late wife, Parks, Ralph David Abernathy Sr., Hosea Williams, Joseph Lowery and Joseph Boone. All are deceased except Lowery.
Parks defied segregated bus seating in Alabama in 1955. Abernathy was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s top lieutenants and co-founder and former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Williams served in the House of Representatives from 1974 to 1983 and started a campaign to feed the poor. He also was a leader in the Selma to Montgomery march, which gave momentum to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Lowery co-founded the SCLC and is a longtime civil rights activist.
Since last year, Brooks and other lawmakers added Boone to their wish list. He was a minister and key organizer in the Atlanta Movement, in which students organized marches against businesses that practiced segregation.
The lawmakers also want the state to designate April 27 as Coretta Scott King Day.
Under House Bill 88 and House Resolution 121, the portraits of Coretta Scott King and the other leaders would be hung on the second floor of the Capitol alongside Martin Luther King Jr.’s picture.
King’s portrait is near a corner beside Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office, sandwiched between portraits of former Govs. Roy Barnes and George Troup. No wall space is left for additional portraits, Olson said. If the new portraits went up, she said, others would have to come down.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: politics
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