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IP: Congress and "Abortion"
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 03 Feb 1996 16:34:39 -0500
Posted-Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 16:31:13 -0500 From: "Craig A. Johnson" <caj () tdrs com> To: farber () central cis upenn edu Dave, FYI. The bill's "abortion" issue is still alive. Craig * * * + by Craig A. Johnson American Reporter Correspondent Washington 2/2/96 telecom act IS ABORTION DISCUSSION BANNED ONLINE? by Craig A. Johnson American Reporter Correspondent WASHINGTON--Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO) found a seam of "fool's gold" in the "The Telecommunications Act of 1996," passed yesterday by overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate. "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," Schroeder said in a press release. In direct contrast to her fellow liberal Democrat Ed Markey (D-MA), who said the bill was a "blueprint for the American superhighway of the 21st century," which "uses competition as its soul," Schroeder spoke to the black heart of the online censorship provisions. Calling the proceedings "a sad day," in American politics, and demonstrably unsatisfied by Representative Henry Hyde's (R-IL) false assurances that online discussions of abortion were constitutionally protected and would not be impacted by the bill's censorship provisions, Schroeder fired off a series of hardball questions which the bill champions blithely ignored. "What happens [when users discuss topics such as abortion] internationally via the Internet? Does the Constitution follow [them] through the lines? What about telemedicine? We don't have an answer," she charged. She said that the conference committee "had the time to clear up all the technical details, but didn't have time to [clarify the Internet restrictions which are] such a significant part of the economy." The lawmakers were intent on "rushing this gag rule through ...," said Schroeder. "We are coming up with things that we are going to live by for the next 50 years," she remonstrated, and asked members if it would not have been more responsible to have worked through the next few weeks in February to clarify such critical matters instead of rushing home to their districts in a self-congratulatory trance. The bill passed yesterday ignited a brief firestorm of controversy as a result of the sleeper language in Section 507 of the bill, which extends the current provisions of Section 1462 of title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, which covers abortion-related issues to "interactive computer services." The measure, as printed in the conference report, shortly to be sent to President Clinton to sign, seems to flatly contradict Hyde's claim that online abortion discussions would not be prohibited by the law. Section 1462 of title 18, as amended, states: "Whoever brings into the United States, or any place subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or knowingly uses any express company or other common carrier, or interactive computer service, as defined in section 230(e)2 of the Communications Act of 1934, for carriage in interstate or foreign commerce-- (a) any obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, motion-picture film, paper, letter, writing, print, or other matter of indecent character; or (b) any obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy phonograph recording, electrical transcription, or other article or thing capable of producing sound; or (c) any drug, medicine, article, or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; or any written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind giving information, directly or indirectly, where, how, or of whom, or by what means any of such mentioned articles, matters, or things may be obtained or made; ..." Capitol rumors have it that this blatantly unconstitutional provision, Sec. 1462(c) above, has been or will be modified by a "technical change," but The American Reporter could not discover any references to it in the six pages of "technical corrections" dated January 30, 1996 that were circulated to members yesterday before their votes. In the absence of this correction, Markey's "soul of competition" may turn out to be the Internet's "heart of darkness." The ugly, brutish facts are that our legislators approved this "early-term abortion" of online civil rights by a margin of 414 to 16 in the House and a margin of 91 to 5 in the Senate. While Hyde's oral mid-course correction on the floor yesterday may be sufficient to cover the Congressional posterior in a court case, one cannot ignore the hard-edged message coming from this Congress: Let's do anything in our power to drop religious right-fashioned noose on the Internet. Meanwhile, a spokesman forone of the nation's largest telephone companies acknowledged the controversy but suggested it may be muted by examination of the context of the House debate on it. "Section 507 of the bill has a reference to a section of the U.S. Code that indirectly deals with abortion," said Bill McCloskey, director of media relations for BellSouth Corp. "One theory expressed by Congressional staffers is that House Members who raised this point during the debate did it to get others to say 'we didn't really mean that,' laying down a 'legislative history,'" McCloskey said. The full text of the bill can be read at a site maintained by the regional Bell telephone companies at http://www.bell.com. -30- The American Reporter Copyright 1995 Joe Shea, The American Reporter All Rights Reserved The American Reporter is published daily at 1812 Ivar Ave., No. 5, Hollywood, CA 90028 Tel. (213)467-0616, by members of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Internet discussion list. It has no affiliation with the SPJ. Articles may be submitted by email to joeshea () netcom com. Subscriptions: Reader: $10.00 per month ($100 per year) and $.01 per word to republish stories, or Professional: $125.00 per week for the re-use of all American Reporter stories. We are reporter-owned. URL: http://www.newshare.com/Reporter/today.html Archives: http://www.newshare.com/Reporter/archives/
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- IP: Congress and "Abortion" Dave Farber (Feb 03)