Telecom bill limits discussion of abortion

[Aki Namioka]

How about some cyber-disobedience?

- Aki

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>From Jeffrey.Johnson at Eng.Sun.COM Mon Feb  5 09:53 PST 1996

>From the SF Examiner, Saturday, 2/3/96

Telecom Bill Bans Abortion Talk on Net

By David Phinny (State News Service)

WASHINGTON -- Discussion abortion on the Internet could become a criminal
act carrying a five-year sentence once the massive Telecommunications Act
is signed into law.

The 600-page bill approved by Congress Thursday includes a provision 
specifically prohibiting transimitting any "information, directly or indirectly"
relating to abortion.  The language is part of a section of the proposed law
banning the communication of obscene materials via computers.

"Under the guise of criminalizing obscenity, the bill as it is now written
includes the most egregious gag rule about abortion-related speech Congress
has ever seen," said Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., who voted against the
entire bill for that reason.

"I thought the Internet was supposed to help expand medical knowledge," she
continued, "not stop us from sharing what we know."

Under Supreme Court rulings, having an abortion is legal, but under the
provisions of the bill, discussing it in cyberspace would be forbidden.

As passed by Congress, violation of the proposed abortion ban would be 
considered a felony, punishable by a five-year prison term for the first
offense and up to 10 years for each subsequent offense.  But debate on
the measure in both the House and Senate suggests lawmakers acknowledge
they have gone too far.

In the House, Schroeder led a handful of lawmakers who protested the ban,
contending it would be a direct assault on free speech protected under the
Constitution.

Many agreed with Schroeder, including civil rights groups and those concerned
with free speech on the Internet and how computer technology may affect
society.

"This is blatantly unconstitutional," said Shari Steele, a staff attorney for
the Electonic Frontier Foundation.  "It doesn't matter whether you're for or
against abortion issues -- under this law you can't even debate the subject
on the Internet."

Supporters of the bill's language said the intent was to curb the spread of
obscene materials on the Interet that may become accessible to children. 
The section also outlaws pornographic material, but supporters conceded
the prohibition on abortion discussions overstepped that goal.

Nevertheless, in a rush to put the telecom bill up for a final vote Thursday,
congressional leaders refused to withdraw the language.

Instead, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., House Judiciary Committee chairman, 
entered into a discussion on the House floor with Rep. Nina Lowey, D-NY, to
clarify the bill's intent.

"Any discussion about abortion -- both pro-life and pro-choice -- is protected
by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech," Hyde said. "I certainly agree
that nothing in this should be interpreted to inhibit free speech about the topic
of abortion.

...

Hyde's discussion merely clarified the intent, but it did nothing to change the
language of the bill.  That will have to be done in a new bill crafted to delete
the abortion language from the telecom package...


***END of Story***

[Comment by Jeff Johnson:  One possible response to this is to find
or create one paragraph of boilerplate text that discusses abortion,
and then initiate a campaign to get *all* Internet users to append it
to every message they send or post and to post it at every Website.
Since the issue here is not abortion itself, but rather violation of
free speech, we don't want anyone's personal stance on abortion to get
in the way of using this boilerplate material.  Therefore, the text
should just be *about* abortion without presenting a stance on
abortion, i.e., it be neither pro-life nor pro-choice.  Either it
should just say what abortion is (e.g., a definition from a
dictionary), or it should contain both pro-life and pro-choice
arguments.  Here is some possible text from my American Heritage
dictionery:  "Abortion: Induced termination of pregnancy before the
embryo or fetus is viable."]


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