The sponsor of the abortion reform bill, Rep. Kiliaen Townsend, acknowledged that a heavy avalanche of mail was in large part responsible for the defeat of the bill in the Georgia House of Representatives last Friday.

Townsend, an Atlanta Republican, said that mail received by legislators from their constituents ran 50 to 1 against his bill, with the heaviest volume coming from Atlanta, Augusta and especially Savannah.

The Catholic Church, said Townsend, triggered much of this opposition. “The Catholic Church exerted an influence far beyond its numbers,” he said matter-of-factly and without rancor. At the same time, Townsend added, some few Catholic, including one Atlanta priest, had written him expressions of support.

The bill was “tabled” by a vote of 133 to 25. Townsend said that many legislators, who actually favored a liberalization of the abortion law, voted to table the bill in order to allow the House to pass on quickly to other business they considered more important. This session of the legislation is in its waning days; it ends March 10.

Fr. Michael A. Morris, executive secretary of the Georgia Catholic Conference, said that even if extended consideration and leisurely debate had preceded Friday’s balloting, “the bill would have been beaten by at least 40 votes.”

Fr. Morris gave Rep. Matthew Mulherin of Augusta much of the credit for the bill’s defeat. Mulherin, one of only three Catholics in the legislature, led the floor fight against the bill.

Aside from moral and religious considerations, Mulherin said the bill was “simply bad legislation,” inasmuch as it did not specifically designate that a licensed physician should perform the abortion procedure. Furthermore, the bill carried no residency requirement, thus raising the fear that Georgia “would turn into a state of abortion mills, like New York.”

Mulherin received some assistance from Rep. James “Sloppy” Floyd of Trion, powerful head of the Appropriations Committee. Floyd rose to state that he “had heard a lot of talk of Catholics opposing the bill,” and he “wanted to make it clear that as a Baptist I am unalterably opposed to the legislation.”

For his part, Townsend explained that his sponsorship of the abortion bill was based on his philosophical opposition to public regulation of private morality. For the same reason, he said, he had sponsored legislation to allow for pari-mutuel betting on horse races. On that issue, he recalled, he received the support of many Catholics, but a strong wall of opposition from the Baptists killed the bill’s chances. He also favors “no fault” divorce and the legalization of marijuana.

In the aftermath of the abortion bill defeat, Fr. Morris said: “This victory for unborn, innocent and defenseless human life reflects the active concern and conscientious action of a majority of Georgians and their elected law-makers. However, the fact that such legislation is proposed and receives substantial support indicates that Christian people must always be vigilant in preserving a civilization which has profound respect for life.”

--JJM