I N SIGHT
Former Detroiter Kathryn Kolbert
is fighting one of the toughest
anti-abortion bills in the country.
E E HOICE
RITA CHARLESTON
Special to The Jewish News
p
HILADELPHIA — Se-
venteen years after
Roe vs. Wade legalized
abortion, the battle against
free choice continues to rage
on.
Today the controversy is
perhaps no more heated than
in the state of Pennsylvania,
where the American Civil
Liberties Union has taken up
the battle in an attempt to
defeat what has been called
one of the toughest anti-
abortion bills in the country.
Fighting for the cause is
former Detroiter Kathryn
Kolbert, state coordinating
counsel of the national ACLU
reproductive freedom project.
Major portions of Penn-
sylvania's stringent law in-
clude such measures as a
mandatory 24-hour waiting
period before a woman could
obtain an abortion, and a re-
quirement that minors obtain
the consent of at least one
parent or a court order before
having an abortion. And
although the passage of such
law was struck down by a
federal judge in August,
abortion-rights activists fear
the legal victory may be
short-lived.
The passage of such a law in
Pennsylvania could set a
legal precedent for every
other state in the nation, Ms.
Kolbert, says.
"A victory for my side in
Pennsylvania means that the
Supreme Court has again
reaffirmed its old view that
Roe vs. Wade is a good law;
that abortion must remain
safe and legal for all women,"
Ms. Kolbert says. "But to
uphold Pennsylvania's law
means that the Court has got
to undermine or reverse a
long line of precedent set in
1973 with Roe vs. Wade,
which says abortion is a fun-
damental right. To uphold the
provisions in Pennsylvania,
the Supreme Court has got to
find that abortion is no longer
entitled to fundamental pro-
tection. "That means that
other states would be free to
enact many kinds of restric-
tions. And if states are given
the green light to do so, the
cumulative effect will be that
they can eliminate abortion
without outlawing it because
all they'll have to do is put
enough restrictions together
to make it totally inaccessible
to most women," she says.
Deborah Leavy, executive
director of the ACLU in Penn-
sylvania, said the case is like-
ly to be the lead to be con-
sidered by the U.S. Supreme
Court in the first post-
Brennan challenge to Roe vs.
Wade.
"Reproductive freedom is
one of the ACLU's highest
priorities," Ms. Leavy says.
"It is a civil liberty that is one
of the most threatened today.
And Kitty was recruited
because of her experience.
Her legal talent and her com-,
mitment to civil liberties are
unequaled.
"She has worked for the
last 12 years fighting for
abortion rights in a very dif-
ficult state against attempts
to curtail reproductive
freedom," Ms. Leavy says.
"She knows the law; she
knows the players, and she's
got a tremendous legal mind.
She's the calmest litigator I
have ever met, but don't let
that calmness fool you. She
never underestimates what's
at stake, and what is at stake
is tremendous. She is very
much aware of how much a
responsibility she shoulders
and she is up to that respon-
sibility in every way."
Ms. Kolbert, originally from
Huntington Woods, has been
working on women's rights
issues in various capacities
for many years — mostly in
Pennsylvania.
In 1988, she joined the
ACLU to continue the fight
on a broader base; to fight for
civil liberties particularly as
they pertain to abortion
nationwide.
Ms. Kolbert's major respon-
sibility is to coordinate all of
the legislative activity on
choice for all 50 states.
Although Pennsylvania
presents her toughest
challenge — second only to
anti-abortion laws in Guam —
one of the states she says she
is also concerned with is
Michigan.
"The anti-choice effort in
Michigan is very strong, and
they were successful in
recently putting the parental
consent question on an in-
itiative that forced a
legislative vote on the ques-
tion," Ms. Kolbert says. "I'm
disappointed that we were not
able to sustain the governor's
veto on that measure."
Ms. Kolbert believes the
issue will ultimately be decid-
C
Above, pro-choice advocates rally in California while,
right, Kathryn Kolbert works in Philadelphia.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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