Democrats double down on support for health care bill

By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau

Democrats and advocates say if Senate Republicans prevail in their walkout, which now is in its seventh week, the legislative casualties in Oregon’s 2023 session will extend beyond a bill ensuring access to abortion and other reproductive and gender-affirming health care.

But as they pressed their arguments during a rally last week at the Capitol in Salem, they also said they are unwilling to give in to Republican demands that House Bill 2002 — which the House passed on a 36-23 vote back on May 1 — be scrapped or substantially amended as a condition for those senators to return.

Since May 3, the Senate has lacked the two-thirds majority (20 of 30) required under the Oregon Constitution to conduct any business or take votes. It has been the longest walkout in recent history.

As of Monday, June 12, the Senate had nearly 400 bills awaiting referral to committees, or advancement from committees to final votes that would send them to the governor or the House. Meanwhile, the House has completed work on nearly all the bills, including state agency budgets, still active in that chamber.

While there is still some time before the 160-day session must end on June 25, “you don’t pass bills in a lightning round,” said Rep. David Gomberg, a Democrat from the central coast and House co-chairman of a legislative budget subcommittee.

Republicans walked out of the Senate despite a ballot measure that voters approved Nov. 8 to bar members from seeking re-election if they amass more than 10 unexcused absences from floor sessions. That threshold has been crossed by nine of the 12 Republicans and an independent originally elected as a Republican, who have enlisted a prominent Portland lawyer to challenge Measure 113 in court. There are 17 Democrats; one returned last week after recovering from major surgery.

Senate Republicans walked out twice in 2019, and House and Senate Republicans did so in 2020, to thwart votes on legislation. Lawmakers did approve a corporate activity tax in 2019, though without Republican votes, after Democrats shelved other priorities. Democrats did abandon pending climate-change legislation (and most other bills) in 2020.

“After five walkouts in the past five years, Oregonians have had enough. This shutdown is a subversion of our democracy,” Rep. Khanh Pham, a Democrat from Southeast Portland, said at the rally.

“Oregon voters elected a pro-choice majority and a pro-choice governor. Senate Republicans are showing now through their obstructionist tactics that they would rather shut down the basic functioning of our government than let us vote to secure our fundamental reproductive freedom. It’s time to stop the sabotage.”

Oregon voters rejected six ballot initiatives between 1978 and 2018 to ban or curb abortion, including measures to require parental notification before abortions, although only 14 of 7,109 abortions performed in Oregon in 2021 involved people under age 15. Three neighboring states also have chosen not to impose restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court returned the issue to states, but Idaho has one of the nation’s strictest bans on abortion.

Advocates back care

Dr. Paula Bednarik is medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, who says women and their caregivers are coming to Oregon to obtain care they cannot get in their home states.

“By (Senate Republicans) abandoning their jobs, they have put the health and lives of Oregonians in jeopardy, overrode standards of medical care, and inserted themselves into examination rooms. This is particularly alarming as more states continue to outlaw abortion and gender-affirming care,” Bednarik said.

“What they are really doing is blocking legislation that protects the health and lives of Oregonians amid unprecedented efforts across this country to criminalize health care.”

Blair Stenvick, who spoke for Basic Rights Oregon, said the same legislation safeguards affirming care for transgender people even as other states outlaw it for minors and restrict it for adults.

“We also urgently need protections against discrimination for trans folks,” she said, “and to ensure that all people have bodily autonomy and can make their own medical decisions with the help of their doctors.”

Sandy Chung, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon: “Our beautiful state has become a refuge for people and families who are fleeing the politics of division and destruction in other states.”

Another measure (Senate Joint Resolution 33), which would be first up on the Senate agenda if the Senate resumes business, would propose a state constitutional amendment for voters to consider in November 2024 to safeguard reproductive rights and remove a 20-year-old definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The voter-approved ban has been unenforceable since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld same-sex marriages in 2015, but a justice has suggested that the court could revisit the issue after last year’s ruling that abortion is not a federal constitutional right.

“It would give voters the opportunity to enshrine marriage equality in our Constitution and repeal Oregon’s discriminatory ban,” said Rep. Ben Bowman, a Democrat from Tigard and one of four gay/lesbian legislators. “Oregon voters deserve to have that choice. That bill, along with hundreds of others, are waiting to be voted on in the Senate.”

GOP faults Democrats

But Senate Republicans, in a rebuttal, accused Democrats of grandstanding:

“On the marble steps of Oregon’s Capitol, Democrats finally admitted what we already knew on a loudspeaker for all to hear. That is: Democrats are willing to sacrifice bipartisan legislation on wildfire, behavioral health, housing, and education over an agenda that is unlawful, uncompromising, and unconstitutional.”

Though that statement in the GOP release went unattributed, Republican Leader Tim Knopp of Bend, who is staunchly opposed to abortion, said:

“Oregonians aren’t props to be used for political gain only to be discarded the second absolute power is restored. Democrats must end the theatrics so we can deliver bipartisan results for Oregonians.”