TFC Marks 25th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
January 22, 1998, was the 25th anniversary of the legal decision in Roe v. Wade. Tennesseans for Choice commemorated the event on Saturday evening, January 24, at Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge. The evening began with a social hour in Pollard's lobby accompanied by the charming music of the Celtic band Dundrennan and a fabulous spread of hors d'oeuvres, cold cuts, salads, punch, and desserts contributed by the membership. During the social hour considerable attention was attracted to a display of abortion literature from the 1960's. The display included studies from the period concerning public attitudes on abortion.
The gathering adjourned to the auditorium. Our former president, Elizabeth Peelle, and current president, Ellen Smith, offered brief remarks on the significance of the anniversary. Elizabeth Peelle also described current fund-raising efforts aimed at preserving the ORHS Student Parenting Center (see related article on page 2). David Reister then introduced the 1963 film Love with the Proper Stranger, starring Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. Despite the traditional happy Hollywood ending, the film realistically depicted the difficulties and dangers faced by a woman seeking an abortion during the years before Roe v. Wade.
Gratitude is due to the many persons who worked to put this event together. Special recognition is due to Marlene Darling, who was in charge of providing the marvelous cuisine, and to many others who contributed their culinary skills, including Jo Hunter, Diane Wilgen, Harriet Joslin, and Linda Gilpin. David Reister made arrangements for the film, which had been suggested by Carol Minarick. Carol also created the abortion literature display. George Leichsenring deserves special recognition for coordinating the phone tree, as do the numerous phone tree callers. Jack Goodwin greeted people at the welcome table. Others who worked hard to coordinate the event include Bob Stone, Ellen Smith, Elizabeth Peelle, and Martha Vitek. The members of the band Dundrennan who performed for us (Allen McBride, Laura Nelson, and Lyric Todkill) also deserve our appreciation for their time and talent.
TFC Speaks Up For Choice on Local Talk Radio Program
This past winter TFC was contacted by Tennessee Right-to-Life with a request to participate with them in a debate about abortion on Hallerin Hill's Sunday morning call-in talk show on Knoxville radio station WIVK. Following discussion, Liz Peelle and Bob Stone agreed to represent TFC on the show, saying we would participate in discussion but did not wish to debate what is essentially a religious matter.
On the Friday evening before the January 11th radio date Liz spotted an article in The Oak Ridger concerning plans for Gregg Cunningham of the California-based Center for Bioethical Reform to visit this area and provide training to pro-life activist organizations including the Oak Ridge Women's Crisis Center. It was only because she recognized his name as the name of the "Tennessee Right-to-Life spokesman" that we realized that our people would be up against a full-time professional pro-life debater, not one of our East Tennessee counterparts.
After a 24-hour effort to try to learn about Cunningham's background and likely tactics, Liz and Bob journeyed to Knoxville for the 90-minute show. The going was tough for the first half of the show, during which the TFC representatives realized that their opponent was not interested in civil discussion, but in winning rhetorical points by aggressive "debating" techniques. Our refusal to debate proved to be a mistake, since it left TFC without a guarantee of "equal time."
Most of the pro-choice listeners felt that we "won" the
last half hour, however, when Cunningham was taken to task by a listener
for "hogging the microphone" and Liz made some points that Cunningham did
not try to rebut. Overall, this was a "learning experience." If TFC receives
a similar invitation in the future, we may or may not accept it, but we
will be better prepared if we do.
From the President's Desk . . .
Anti-Choice Philosophy May Leave Little Room for "Common Ground"TFC has been baffled that local "pro-life" groups have not been receptive to the idea of seeking "common ground" and working together to combat teen pregnancy and improve the welfare of women, children, and families. The "Pro-Life Encyclopedia" gives new insight into anti-choice thinking and may help explain why anti-choice groups are not interested in finding common ground.
I ran across the American Life League's Pro-Life Encyclopedia on the Internet back in January, while helping Liz Peelle and Bob Stone prepare for their radio talk-show encounter with a national anti-choice spokesman. The "Priests for Life" Web site recommended the Encyclopedia as a training resource for anti-choice activists.
The Pro-Life Encyclopedia is huge, with 140 long chapters and 6 appendices. A sample of the chapter titles reveals much of the content: "Anti-life groups: The Holocaust enablers and promoters," "The privacy cloak: Hiding the right to kill," "Control of the future through control of the schools," "Norplant: Better killing through chemistry," "The American Civil Liberties Union: Anti-Life shock troops," "Forced abortion: Anti-life dream for the world," "Artificial contraception: Contrary to God's plan," and "Euthanasia movement: Deadly echo of the abortion movement."
The authors of the "Encyclopedia" oppose not only abortion, but what they see as an intrinsically evil "anti-life" conspiracy aimed at imposing social controls that violate the sanctity of human life. Besides abortion, alleged anti-life initiatives include artificial contraception, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, (but not capital punishment, which the Encyclopedia authors support). Environmental and animal-rights groups are also considered to be "anti-life." Advocates of reproductive choice are likened to Nazis, Communists, and slaveholders.
TFC found Chapter 16, "Pro-Abortion slogans and how to handle them," particularly interesting reading. In response to our slogan Pro-Child/Pro-Family/Pro-Choice, it says that if choice advocates were truly "pro-child" we would have larger families (like pro-life activists). The Planned Parenthood slogan "Every Child A Wanted Child" is attacked for "indirectly advocating the disposal of unwanted born children."
We cannot assume that everyone who opposes abortion shares all of the views expressed in the Pro-Life Encyclopedia. However, there is evidence that the philosophy is widely shared among anti-choice groups. For example, the political agendas of national right-to-life organizations include opposition to family planning programs and living wills. Also, anti-choice organizations in East Tennessee recently received activist training from a source (Gregg Cunningham of the Center for Bioethical Reform, the man who shared the talk-show platform with our spokespeople) endorsed by the same Priests for Life organization that led me to the Pro-Life Encyclopedia.
If the opponents of reproductive choice are being taught to see pro-choice activists as agents of evil, is it any wonder that they refuse to sit down with us to try to find common ground? This may seem like an invitation to negotiate with the devil! This background makes it clear that we will not achieve common ground soon. We can hope, however, that over time our words and actions (such as support for the Students' Parenting Center) will demonstrate to our anti-choice neighbors that we are moral people with a sincere commitment to children, families, and future generations. Then perhaps we can begin to work together.
-- Ellen Smith
The URL for the American Life League is http://www.all.org/.
The Pro-Life Encyclopedia has been taken down from their website, but the
website says it will be back.
Recent Books Tell of "Abortion Wars"
The 25th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision seems to have spawned a new wave of books about the abortion rights movement before Roe v. Wade and about the abortion debate in our society in the years since. Among the recent titles are:
Articles of Faith
A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars.
By Cynthia Gorney.
575 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $27.50.
The American Abortion War
By James Risen and Judy L. Thomas.
Illustrated. 402 pp. New York: Basic Books. $25.
Abortion Wars A Half Century of Struggle,
1950-2000.
Edited by Rickie Solinger. 413 pp.
University of California Press. Cloth, $45. Paper, $16.95.
Update on Student Parenting Center Support Effort
By Elizabeth Peelle
The Oak Ridge High School Student Parenting Center provides school mothers with child care and other support if they attend the required parenting and budgeting classes. The idea is to enable them to complete their high school education while learning the skills needed to become good mothers, too. But this is more than just helping girls in a tight spot because they chose to become mothers now. It is important to all of us that they be encouraged and enabled to finish their high school education, and it is perhaps the best way to help these babies receive the care and nurture they need.
My efforts to encourage financial support of the Student Parenting Center (SPC) have, as of mid-April, produced $3,660 from 56 Pro-choice individuals and two organizations (Tennesseans for Choice and the Anderson County Democratic Women). This is a large fraction of the sum needed to finish the school year, but the SPC still needs several thousand dollars to finish the current school year and more public support for next year. Since TFC members were significant supporters of the center at its founding several years ago, I decided to approach many of you at this time when the future of the center was in doubt.
I was gratified to pass along these monies to the school system. But where are the Pro-life people who also believe in supporting babies and their (very) young mothers? So far all of this support comes from Pro-choice citizens. I have repeatedly invited our Pro-life friends and neighbors to join us in this effort. I did so in my initial presentation of $2,775 to the Oak Ridge School Board in January and again in a letter published in The Oak Ridger on March 5. Surely we can agree upon supporting underage mothers and their babies so that they can become self-supporting and better able to manage.
With so many children needing better care and support in this world, think what we could do if we could stop arguing over abortion and begin cooperating on better care of children, encouraging more adoptions, and reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies? We should spend more time and money searching out our areas of agreement rather than fighting over our disagreements!
I would be very pleased to continue forwarding checks. Phone me at 483-8974.
Or you may wish to contribute directly to ORHS Student Parenting Center
at 127 Providence Road. if you haven't already contributed
to this worthy cause, please consider doing so .
Parenting Skills Program Begins in Anderson County
By Peggy Meier
Healthy Start is a preventative program that makes the effort to reach families as early as possible in order to build parenting skills. Such early intervention is intended to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect.
During 1995, the Anderson County Department of Children's Services investigated 193 cases of physical abuse, 142 cases of sexual abuse, 274 cases of neglect, and 105 cases of parental behavior which place a child at high risk of emotional abuse or neglect--a total of 714 cases. Each year, the total rises. Forty-five per cent of the children found to have been abused were under the age of 5.
Healthy Start/Healthy Families will provide voluntary home visitor services to first-time parents in Anderson County. It is modeled after a successful ten-year-old program in Hawaii. Home visitor programs have been able to encourage timely and appropriate use of health care (including immunizations), enhance school preparedness and drastically reduce child abuse and neglect. Families are better equipped to care for their children.
Healthy Start is funded through a Covenant Health Care System grant, local government funds, and private contributions. It is sponsored by the Anderson County Health Council. It took the combined efforts of a number of local citizens to bring this program to Anderson County. Congratulations to this group of determined individuals!
Ohio "Partial Birth" Abortion Ban Is Unconstitutional
The U. S. Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court ruling in the first case to reach it involving a ban on a method of late-term abortion. The U.S. Appeals Court had ruled in November that an Ohio law restricting women=s access to abortion was unconstitutional because it effectively prohibited even the most common method of performing abortions during the second trimester.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the ruling. The request to review the Appeals Court ruling was supported by only three of the nine JusticesCClarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and William H. Rehnquist.
The Ohio law was unusually broad in its definition of prohibited procedures. The court=s action was interpreted as saying little about how the court might eventually respond to more typical legislative approaches to banning Apartial birth@ abortions. President Clinton has twice vetoed federal legislation on this matter, and 22 states have passed laws modeled after the vetoed federal legislation.
-- Adapted from a March 24, 1998 New York Times article by Linda Greenhouse
Planned Parenthood Advocates Insurance Coverage for Contraception
Planned Parenthood Federation of America is working to mobilize support for federal legislation that would stop health insurance plans from excluding contraception coverage from their prescription drug coverage. The Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraception Coverage Act (S.766, H.R.2174) would dramatically increase access to contraception by prohibiting group health plans from restricting benefits for prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, if the plans cover other outpatient prescription drugs..
In a letter to members PPFA president Gloria Feldt asks, AWhy [do] so many health insurance plans cover prescription drugs, and even abortion, but not . . . birth control?@ This particularly baffling considering that the cost of contraception is far less than that of unintended pregnancies. She also notes that women of childbearing age pay 68% more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men their age, largely because of the costs of reproductive health care and contraception. Thus some women may have to choose between paying for contraceptives or paying their other bills, but running the risk of unwanted pregnancy.
PPFA is asking its supporters to urge their congressional representatives to support the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act. This proposed legislation has been sitting in committee since it was introduced last year. There are no Tennessee Congressmen among the 9 Senators and 97 House members listed as cosponsors.
By Peggy Meier
As of mid April, the Tennessee Legislature had not taken any action on the bills that would affect a woman's right to choose. Bills rolled over from last year were not voted on in committee. The choice-related bills included measures to increase punishment for acts of violence against reproductive health services facilities, a proposal to ban use of state funds for abortion, and a measure to require that doctors who perform abortions must either reside in the county where the abortion is performed or maintain an on-call relationship with a resident physician.
However, this is a state election year, and if we do not elect pro-choice candidates to the legislature, we can expect to have several anti-choice bills submitted in 1999. So let us not be too complacent!
Increase in State Anti-Choice Laws
The NARAL Foundation and NARAL have documented a steady increase in the number of anti-choice state laws introduced and enacted in 1997. The Supreme Court's 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, dramatically diminished protections for women by permitting states to impose restrictions that previously would have been unconstitutional.
Since Casey, the number of states enforcing mandatory waiting periods has increased from 0 to 15. The number enforcing mandatory parental consent or notice laws has risen 82 percent, from 17 to 31, and the number enforcing bans on so-called "partial birth" abortions has risen from 0 to 10. While abortion opponents wage their campaign against a women's right to chose, they do nothing to address the causes of unintended pregnancies.
-- Spring 1998 NARAL News
New Technique is Making Earlier Abortions Possible
The accuracy and ready availability of early abortion tests is apparently beginning a small abortion revolution by expanding the options for ending a pregnancy. Pregnancy can now be detected at the time of a woman's first missed period -- or even earlier -- and new abortion techniques allow a pregnancy to be terminated just as early.
According to the New York Times (December 21, 1997), one recent successful development is the availability of very early surgical abortions. The newest surgical technique involves anesthetizing the cervix and suctioning out the contents of the uterus in a matter of two minutes. Subsequently, the contents of the syringe are inspected to locate the gestational sac, which may still be no larger than the head of a matchstick, while the patient waits in the recovery room Surgical complications that used to occur in abortions earlier than six weeks= gestation are avoided by using right-sized instruments.
Since the early surgical abortion procedure was introduced by the Houston Planned Parenthood affiliate in early 1997, it has been adopted by numerous other abortion providers. Early abortions help to avoid weeks of anxiety and stress for women with unintended pregnancies.
The new surgical procedure joins chemical approaches to early abortion that are available to varying degrees across the country:
Methotrexate: Effective up to seven weeks after conception, this drug is available only in some areas on an experimental basis. Yet to approved by the FDA for treatment of unwanted pregnancies, it has long been available for treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and other conditions..
Mifepristone (RU-486): Like methotrexate, this drug is available only in some areas on an experimental basis. The parent European company has long been unwilling to market the drug in the U.S. because of fear of liability suits. But, under pressure from the Clinton administration, Roussel-Uclaf donated patent rights to the U.S. nonprofit group The Population Council. The group has had trouble both in finding a manufacturer and in getting approval from the FDA.
Many women feel that early surgical abortion is more natural than chemical means, according to Mary Ellen Hamilton, of San Diego Planned Parenthood. After the early surgical procedure became available in San Diego last September, more women have opted for it over the use of the experimentally available drug methotrexate. Similarly, in Houston hundreds have opted for the early surgical procedure compared to 14 who have chosen methotrexate since both procedures became available early in 1997.
As Ms. Hamilton told the New York Times, "It's great to have options, and it's a very individual choice." The availability of pregnancy termination methods that do not require a visit to a surgical clinic is expected to improve access to abortion by making it harder for anti-choice groups to identify abortion providers and target them for demonstrations and attacks.
Population Institute Decries Recent Claims that Population Crisis is Over
A recent letter from The Population Institute notes that many publications have recently declared the population crisis over. The letter notes that while the average fertility in developing countries has dropped from six to three children per woman over the past 30 years, the number of young people now reaching reproductive age is approximately equal to the entire world population in 1960 (3 billion).
It took all of recorded history until 1830 for the human population to reach one billion. A hundred years later, it had reached two billion. Forty-five years later (1975) it had again doubled to four billion. Before the end of this centuryCin less than two more yearsCit will be at six billion. Ninety-eight percent of population growth takes place in the poorest countries, so that now 85 countries on this planet cannot produce enough food for their own populations.
The ultimate size of the world population depends on the
reproductive behavior of the new generation. Will they have (1) the political
will and leadership to stabilize population, (2) the motivation to decrease
family size, and (3) access to family planning information and contraceptive
methods?
Visit Tennesseans for Choice on the Internet!
Visit our web site at http://www.korrnet.org.choicetn/.
Send email to our webmaster, David Reister, at choicetn@korrnet.org.
Tennesseans for Choice notes with sadness that several of our members passed away during the last few months. We will particularly miss Stella Perdue, a long-time member of TFC's board, most recently our Historian-Archivist.
Wanted: Aspiring Pro-Choice Journalists
This is the last issue of the Advocate for the
current editor, Dev Joslin. Therefore, TFC is seeking aspiring journalists
to help carry on. Help is needed in all phases of the publication, from
writing articles to page layout. This is an opportunity not only to communicate
to other TFC members, but to inform yourself about reproductive choice
topics. If you think you are interested in helping, please contact any
board member.