Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 3

SUNDAY, DEC. 13, 1998 ASBURY PARK PRESS PAGE A3 Ruling broadens abortion debate 1 New Jersey becomes the 12th state where the courts have overturned legislative bans on controversial partlal-blrth abortions. 1 fin? A Whitman's conditional veto. The law has been on hold since tha time. Both sides have clashed over the legal definition of partial-birth, abortion and have never agreedt whether it covers abortion proce-dures currently known and performed under a medical name.

Compounding the confusion is the fact that no statistics are kept on partial-birth abortions, because it is not a phrase recognized in the medical community a fact that led to its undoing in court. "Because the phrases 'partially vaginally 'living human fetus' and 'substantial portion' have more than one interpretation, those subject to the penalties of the Act cannot, with any certainty, determine what conduct is prohibited," Judge Thompson wrote in her opinion. "This lack of precision also leaves the Act open to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement." Whitman said she was troubled that the law allowed the procedure only if the woman's life were at stake, but did not have a broader exception for health. "The whole strategy has been to1 demonize women who seek abortions," Kinsler said. "What does it say about a movement that disre gards considerations for a woman's health?" Tasy said opponents of Ve ban are playing semantics.

"The truth of the matter is they will never accept any regulations on any abortion procedure, no matter how the ban is written," Tasy said. associate at the Center for the American Woman in Politics at Rutgers University. "This provided a way to reframe the debate. They focused on a particular procedure that made even many pro-choice politicians uncomfortable." The portrayal was unfair, according to those who support abortion rights. They point out that the vast majority of abortions are performed during the first weeks of pregnancy, and later-term abortions are rare.

Dodson said abortion foes may have gathered some support and sympathy from the partial birth abortion debate, but they have not swayed a majority of the public. She compared results of national surveys conducted in 1992 and 1996 that showed most people did not change their stance: that abortion is a private matter which should be decided without government intervention. It also depends on how the questions are worded, she added. When people were asked if partial-birth abortion should be banned, 50 percent answered yes, 27 percent answered no, and the rest were undecided. But when that same group of voters was asked if late-term abortion should be banned even when the pregnancy endangers a woman's health, 68 percent disagreed and only 28 percent agreed.

Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey last December sued the Legislature after it adopted the ban over Gov. bans which prevent the law from being enforced while the case is being considered have been handed down in another five states. Supporters of the ban point to the "nine states where similar laws have been allowed to stand. In most of those states, the laws have not been challenged in court. But abortion-rights supporters claim their opponents' real goal is not to pass legislation but to change public attitudes about abortion.

"This is a media battle, and it has been devilishly clever," said Phyllis Kinsler, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey. "The rhetoric has blown away the facts repeatedly." The debate centers on a procedure in which the fetus is pulled partially through the birth canal and the brain is removed to allow the head to pass. Under New Jersey's law, a doctor who performs such surgery would face the immediate loss of his or her license and a $25,000 fine. Specifically, the language of the law bars abortions "in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living human fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery." Supporters of the ban focused public attention on the gritty, medical details of abortion. They referred to the fetus as a child, and that was reflected in literature and drawings used to lobby for the ban.

"The way issues get talked about is enormously important," said Debra L. Dodson, senior research Associated Press Free-lance photographer Alan Dumoff sits in the cab of his truck, which is equipped with multiple police scanners. Accident-chasing pays his bills, and then some By LISA L. COLANGELO STAFF WRITER LAST WEEK, New Jersey joined the growing list of states that have adopted bans on so-called partial-birth abortions only to have them tossed out in federal court. Although abortion foes may be losing the legal battles, the debate itself has provided the kind of public forum and political clout that has eluded them for years.

"Almost everyone you talk to has heard of partial-birth abortion," said Marie Tasy, public and legislative affairs director of the New Jersey Right to Life Committee, which opposes legalized abortions. "What was once taboo is now being discussed at dinner tables. A lot of people are having second thoughts supporting abortion." On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson ruled New Jersey's law is so vague it could end up banning all abortion procedures, a finding echoed by judges hearing similar cases around the nation.

Similar laws were struck down last month in Florida and Arkansas. In all, courts in 12 states have permanently blocked bans on partial-birth abortions. Preliminary Ports digging deeper to lure future traffic "They haven't called for helicopters the Jaws of Life." A native of Philadelphia, Dumoff learned about news photography from a former Philadelphia Daily News photo editor who lived next door. Too young to drive, he would shot photographs of sports, accidents, whatever he could find. At 18, he was hired by United Press International, and for two years he shot news photographs of the war in Vietnam.

He learned quickly that a solid stomach was as important as a good camera. "I just learned to separate it. Here were people losing their lives, but it was my job to document it. The only time it affects me is when the victims are young children. If it doesn't affect you, you're not alive." Back in the states, he obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in photography.

He has fashioned a reputation as an accident addict whose on-scene photographs sometimes too graphic for mass publication can help win a personal injury case or fortify the criminal prosecution of a drunken driver. He provides copyrighted photographs free of charge to law enforcement investigators, in the hope of currying favor and drumming up business. Everyone else has to pay $35 per 8-by-10 color print, with a minimum of four images bought. An acquaintance estimates Dumoff earns in excess of $100,000 a year, but Dumoff declines to put an exact number on it. "Legally, that picture of Mr.

and Mrs. So-and-So still in their car after the accident is a powerful tool for an attorney for the plaintiff," he said. "Getting there as early as possible is a primary thing." He says he has never given aid to an accident victim because "I know the liability of putting my hands on anybody." At home in his Hamilton Township condo Dumoff has 22 scanners on around the clock. He is ready to go on a moment's notice. His shoes have Velcro tabs (easier to put on in rush).

Clothes are laid out, ready to wear. "I'm ready to roll 24-7. There's no such thing as weather, space or anything that deters the thought of being there. I can be out the door from a dead sleep in four minutes." His wife of seven years, Joan Bell, 42, says the scanner noise drives her nuts. "That's probably our biggest battle the scanners," she says.

"I turn them off and he turns them on." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Camden, N.J., metal dealer John Bantivoglio III hopes to gain from a fierce, national race to the bottom. Up and down both coasts and along the Gulf of Mexico, the federal government and local port authorities are spending billions of dollars to deepen waterways for tomorrow's cargo ships, the giant ones that can carry more goods and reduce per-ton shipping costs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to make the Delaware River and Bay in the Philadelphia area 5 feet deeper so some of those big ships can reach such businesses as Bantivoglio's scrap steel recycling operations in Camden. "When other ports have deeper waters, they can take larger vessels and are much more competitive," said Bantivoglio, a manager at Camden Iron and Metal Inc.

"If New York has deeper channels, they are going to be able to get the business." The Philadelphia project will deepen the waterway to 45 feet. New York is also heading to 45 feet and has begun studies targeting 50. A trio of Virginia ports, already at 50 feet, are headed to 55. Oakland, got to 42 feet in July and only a few months later pushed Congress to approve 50. Boston, Baltimore, Wilmington, N.C., Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Jacksonville, Houston, Los Angeles and Tacoma, are among the other ports with projects proposed or in the works.

This summer's maiden voyage of the Regina Maersk longer than the Eiffel Tower, and the largest container-cargo ship ever to come to North America has intensified the need for deeper waters. The Regina, which can carry about 50 percent more cargo than the current generation of cargo ships, is one of dozens of its kind being built and can visit most U.S. ports only when partially loaded and riding a high tide. Fully loaded, the ship needs 52 feet to navigate safely. The ports desiring deeper channels are trying to remain competitive with one another as well as with ports in Europe and Asia.

U.S. Postal Service announced yesterday. The increased hours will be temporary, just to make the holiday mailing season a little easier. Post offices will be open today and Sunday, Dec. 20.

Customers should call their local post offices to get complete information on hours and "We are told by the shippers that if we don't go deeper, eventually they won't be able to come," said Deborah Hadden, manager of maritime environmental affairs with Boston's Massachusetts Port Authority. "We have to take that as a real threat." With many of the projects costing a few hundred million dollars apiece, some question whether all ports truly need to go deeper. Analysts expect the biggest ships to visit only one or two ports on a given run and transfer cargo elsewhere by rail, truck or smaller vessels. For the most part, ports are going deeper just to be contenders, with no guarantee those big ships will actually call at their particular port. "All of these ports are chasing the same cargo and chasing the same pork dollars," said Richard J.

Steady, manager of regulatory affairs for Maritrans Inc. in Philadelphia, which sees deeper channels eating into its business of lightening ships by unloading cargo onto other vessels before reaching port. And as Army civil engineers dig deeper, they face more obstacles getting rid of the dredged materials, some laden with industrial contaminants from decades or centuries past, before environmental laws restricted waterway discharge. "It's the race to the bottom literally," said Scott Faber of the environmental group American Rivers. "There's something of a water resources Cold War across the world." Environmentalists complain that river deepening projects change marine habitats and unearth toxins that can get into the food chain or leak into ground water supplies.

Some have gone to court. Others THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NORTHFIELD Alan Dumoff has heard the nicknames. Master of Disaster. Dr. Death.

The Ambulance Chaser. Yes, he was there when a freak motorcycle accident propelled its victim 10 feet up into a roadside tree, where he came to rest hanging from a branch, dead. He made a photograph of it. Yes, he snapped away after a Dodge Neon collided with a truck, then burned as its doomed driver screamed: "Help me! Someone help me!" And yes, he showed up when a tyoman accidentally drove her Lincoln Town Car through the wall of an Allstate insurance office, firing away with his Nikon camera as paramedics strapped victims to stretchers. Hey, you never know who might be willing to pay for the pictures.

Dumoff, 54, has carved out a ghoulish niche for himself as a freelance photographer specializing in highway carnage. I Monitoring police, fire and emergency medical service frequencies, he hears the dispatches and rushes to the scene, sometimes beating the ambulances and fire trucks, He sells hia photographs to newspapers, TV stations, personal injury attorneys, insurance adjusters, accident investigators or whoever else might be interested. The more serious the accident, the more valuable the photos. But he says he doesn't root for death or what he calls "manglement." "It's not a matter of rooting. Nobody wants to see people hurt less than I do, but accidents are going to happen.

It's inevitable," Dumoff says. It is 2:50 p.m. on a Tuesday and Dumoff is cruising U.S. 40 in Hamilton Township, near Atlantic City. His "office" is a red 1990 Toyota Land Cruiser with 307,489 miles on the odometer and four scanners on the dashboard.

The scanners emit a steady stream of beeps, buzzes, static and abbreviated statements from dispatchers. He doesn't seem to be listening, but then the Egg Harbor City scanner crackles "Pedestrian MVA, 500 block of St. Louis Avenue." "Here we go," Dumoff says, pulling a U-turn to head west. Another scanner reports a car has hit a building on U.S. 9 in Northfield.

It sounds more promising than the Egg Harbor call. i "That pedestrian accident doesn't sound that severe," Dumoff says. COMCAST I I II a om MS Authorized Agent MOTOROLA M-70 WHEN YOU SIGN ON FOR 1 MAUAAAAAAIUAUMAAM $30 Per Month 75 Free I I I I VOICE PRIVACY 3 LINE DISPLAY I 100 ALPHA MEMORY ASK HOW TO RECEIVE or a WE Pagers, 1 J. post offices to stay open on Sundays simply raised a stink. Those com-i plaints sometimes add years an3 costs.

A recent project in Baltimore, for instance, was tied up in the courts for more than a decade. It took three additional years to construct a disposal site. New York port officials estimate that costs have doubled because federal government closed an ocean dump site in 1997. The material will now be mixed with fly ash or cement for use as fill material at two golf courses, a mall and a ware house complex in New Jersey and an abandoned coal mine in Pennsyl: vania's Clearfield County. a Nevertheless, the race to get deeper continues.

Ports also are spending money to improve their terminals and other infrastructure and to offer such perks as specialized oceanographic data, which cart more precisely tell captains how heavy their ships can be. i The New York and northern New Jersey ports believe they lose about 5 percent of their container-carg6 business to deeper ports such as Halifax, Nova Scotia. "We can't build channels as fast as they can build ships," said Tom Wakeman, dredging manager fof the Port Authority of New York and. New Jersey. "Everyone's bringing on deeper ships." The Press corrects its mistakes and clarifies stories ungrudgingly.

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