Name Stephen Freind Nationality American Role Politician | Political party Republican Party Republican Party Religion Roman Catholic Succeeded by Greg Vitali | |
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Born April 22, 1944 (age 79)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ( 1944-04-22 ) | ||
Preceded by Faith Ryan Whittlesey | ||
Stephen F. Freind (born 1944) is a Republican politician who served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly as the state representative for Delaware County from 1976 until 1993, when he unsuccessfully challenged Arlen Specter in the 1992 Republican primary election. He was most notable for authoring a law that was presented as a tort reform measure but was actually designed to restrict abortion rights, that included "requirements that a married woman notify her husband, that there be a 24-hour wait before any abortion, and that doctors show patients a pamphlet with pictures of developing fetuses". It was mostly upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States except for the spousal notification provision in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
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In 1988, Freind provoked controversy by claiming that it is 'almost impossible' for a woman to become pregnant through rape, as it causes her to 'secrete a certain secretion, which has a tendency to kill sperm'.
In 1984, a bill drafted by Freind was enacted into law that changed the way adults who were adopted as children access their original birth certificates. This became Act 195 of 1984 or Adoption Act of 1984. This act is a lesser-known component of Freind's abortion agenda. Freind was convinced that denying adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates would lower abortion rates. As of 2012, 44 states allow adult adoptees equal access to their original birth certificates.
Run for Senate
In 1992 Freind left his state legislative seat and challenged Arlen Specter in the Republican U.S. Senate Primary, running to the right of the centrist Arlen Specter, accusing Specter of having more in common with Democrats than Republicans. Freind was unsuccessful in the effort, although he was proved right about Specter's Democratic sympathies. Specter ultimately left the GOP for the Democratic Party and lost his senate seat when he was defeated in the Democratic primary by a challenger who ultimately lost the general election to Republican Pat Toomey.
Republican primary for the United States Senate from Pennsylvania, 1992: