A fiercely debated referendum that would have changed the city`s charter to assert that ”life begins at conception” was overwhelmingly defeated here Saturday.
With more than 90 percent of the vote in, the referendum, known as Proposition 2, was failing by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent.
”I`m so relieved,” said Nan Pillinger, president of the local League of Women Voters and a staunch opponent of the referendum. ”The fact that we defeated it soundly is a strong statement. The nation is watching us.”
”I`m just going to a prayer vigil out behind the abortion clinic right now,” said local attorney Ben Sley, one of the leaders of the pro-amendment forces, who was reached at home Saturday night. ”That only statement will be the prayers I`m making right now.”
The initiative spelled out rights that apply to ”all members of the human family, regardless of age, development, physical or mental condition, race or natural origin.”
It concluded that ”human life begins at conception and continues until natural death.”
The amendment had focused national attention on this Gulf of Mexico city of 260,000, which has become an abortion-rights battleground since the Roman Catholic Bishop Rene Gracida excommunicated two abortion clinic directors and last summer.
Propositon 2, believed to be the first such measure proposed for a city charter in the nation, failed even though proponents outspent the anti-amendment forces 8 to 1.
Local authorities had said Proposition 2 would carry no apparent force of law, but abortion-rights groups and many city officials opposed the amendment as a ”religious statement” that did not belong in the city charter.
”It was an experiment in extremism,” said Amanda Stukenberg, president of South Texans for Choice, an abortion-rights group. ”I think (its defeat)
speaks to the concern that everybody has that difficult decision about when life begins and ends be left to individuals, not governing bodies.”
Anti-abortion forces hoped to use the amendment as a step toward passing restrictive new abortion laws in Texas.
