UPDATE: Abortion Legislation

The following article was reprinted from the Preterm Newsleter, Winter 1977.

Serious prohibitions on Medicaid funded abortions have resulted from a House-Senate compromise which will allow payment only when a woman might die by going through a full-term pregnancy, for rape or incest victims who make prompt reports to police or health service agencies, and in cases where two doctors certify that a woman would suffer severe and long-lasting physical health damage because of pregnancy. Rulings on this wording must now be written by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and submitted to the Ohio Department of Welfare. It will be several weeks before the DHEW and ODPW interpretations are made available to providers.

This controversial issue of Medicaid funding for abortion under the 1978 Labor/HEW Appropriations Bill was finally settled December 7 after four months in the House-Senate conference committee. This particular bill also covered funding of all departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare plus ten smaller agencies and funding for the District of Columbia and its 35,000 employees. Two continuing resolutions were passed by Congress to avert pay cuts for more than a quarter million federal employees while the abortion debate raged. The difficulties experienced in passage of this bill resulted from distinct and disparate HouseSenate positions on Medicaid funding of abortions. The Senate fought for language that would take into account the physical and mental health of women and opposed the rape and incest provisions. Compromise was finally reached when the Senate reluctantly agreed to the rape and incest report requirements.

Medicaid funding of abortions under the 1977 Labor/HEW Appropriations Bill was cut off in Ohio and elsewhere in August because of a Supreme Court decision that states do not have to pay for abortions for women on welfare. Nineteen states have elected to continue paying for abortions but Ohio is prohibited by state law from using Medicaid monies if federal matching funds are not available.

Since that ruling, the death of a 27-year-old welfare mother from massive complications sustained during an illegal $40 back alley abortion was confirmed by the federal Center for Disease Control. Four other women were treated for complications at the same Texas hospital, and one woman required $10,000 worth of corrective surgery. Litte shock or surprise was expressed in Washington in response, since death and abortion complications had long been predicted if welfare women were denied access to legal abortion.

As Representative Henry J. Hyde and other antiabortionists celebrate the dubious distinction of

denying aid to poor women, the government continues to finance abortions for servicewomen, wives and daughters of military personnel and millions of civil servants and their dependents. As stated in the Cleveland Press, Hyde and other compulsory pregnancy proponents are "likely to find that denying treatment to articulate government workers is not so easy as denying aid to poor women."

Women throughout the nation continue to speak out against this inequity, but lack the political clout to have their demands met. The Reproductive Freedom Resolution urging federal, state and local governments to comply with Supreme Court decisions guaranteeing reproductive freedom to all women was passed by a wide margin at the National Wo. men's Conference in Houston. The resolutions adopted by the conference will be sent to President Carter and Congress for legislative and executive action. Their response to the resolutions passed at this conference will be a definitive statement on the status of women in the U.S.

SCALPEL.. SPONGE SUTURE..

ABORTION CLINIC NO WELFARE PATIENTS

POCKETKNIFE.. STRING.. COAT HANGER.

Although suffering major defeats this past year, pro-choice forces have demonstrated their ability to delay massive pieces of legislation for long periods of time. This political pressure will be most important as our legislators begin work on a national health insurance plan. Using this clout, pro-choice forces could delay or even scuttle any national health insurance plan that does not include abortion and funding for all reproductive health services,

There is work to be done. We urge you to continue your support of reproductive freedom by writing your congressperson and by joining efforts with the local Reproductive Freedom Coalition, P. O. Box 18089, Cleveland, Ohio 44118.

LETTERS

The following is excerpted from a statement signed by over 300 individual women and women's groups which was published in the January 1978 issue of Off Our Backs:

All of us are from different parts of the feminist movement, many holding differing political opin ions. But because of the recent vandalization of Diana Press, we are joining together now to say that we abhor this act and any act of violence against feminist institutions. Acts such as the damaging of the negatives and plates, presses and books, of one feminist press probably took half an hour to commit. We are faced with the loss of the writing which' Diana Press would have published this year, and which represents years of thought and work. We are also faced with the inevitable feelings of defeat, anger, and desperation which accompany such useless destruction.

Within the movement, we assert the power and richness of our differences, our right to criticize and argue with each other, our necessity to explore and preserve our diversity. But we insist that our internal, mutual criticism be carried on responsibly, and with a respect for process.

Some of us joining in this statement have been heavily critical of the politics of the Feminist Economic Network, with which Diana Press has been associated; some of us were strong supporters of FEN. The signing of this statement does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of any specific political faction in the movement. We consider that, whether perpetrated by men, or by women acting as the agents of men, or by women expressing misdirected anger, such acts are acts of hatred toward women and women's culture. In signing this statement, we as a group refuse the desperation that such acts engender, and ask that we all work to transform this attack into an affirmation of the power and significance of our work together by supporting Diana Press in this crisis. If Diana Press is to survive, they must have the money with which to restore the enormous damage done to their equipment, materials, and books.

Send whatever money you can to: Diana Press, 4400 Market Street, Oakland, California 94608.

WSW distribution outlets: West: Six Steps Down

West Side Co-op

East: Three of Cups

Hemming and Hulbert Booksellers

Food Communities Co-op

The Food Project

Genesis 1:29

Cleveland Rape Crisis Center

CosmicComix

Appletree Books

Coventry Books

Horizons Growth Center Gay Community Center WomenSpace

WHAT SHE WANTS IS:

A MONTHLY NEWS JOURNAL PRODUCED FOR ALL WOMEN. There is no subject unsuitable for our readers and therefore you will find articles on every topic from politics to poetry in each issue

WHAT SHE WANTS ADVOCATES:

equa' and civil rights

...the right to earnings based on our need, merit and interest

1

access to job training, salaries and promotions we choo

...the right to organize in unions and coalitions to advance

Our cause

...the right la ducent health care and health information ...the right to sale effective birth control and to safe and legal abortions

...the right to accept or reject motherhood

...the right to make and ixxpress sexual peference without harlement

..the right to eccella.nce in education and freedom from prejudice in learning materials

What She Wants

What She Wants has rescheduled production to the second weekend of every month. Copy should be handed in by the first of every month so that we can discuss and edit collectively at out editorial meetings. Articles are much easier to read if they are printed or typed. Please leave material in our mailbox (second floor of the White House, 2420 S. Taylor Rd. at Scarborough, Cleveland Heights) or mail to: WSW, c/o Cleveland Women's Counsel, P.O. Box 18472, Cleveland Heights, 44118.

WE ARE:

Carol Epstein; Linda Jane; Marycatherine Krauso Barbara Louise; Barbara Housch; Mary Walsh

FRIENDS OF THIS ISSUE

Janet Century, Sandy Carter, Merle Crews, Arlene Dadley, G. Epstein, Judy Gregery

WSW always likes input from our readers in the form of letters, articles, DH My Breast, personal experiences WSW always likes to include new women on our staff who are willing to write, help with lay-out, organization, editorlal, advertising, and selling full time and part time WSW always likes new subscribers, distribution people, outlets for sales, and publicity

WSW always needs information about what Cleveland women are doing, planning, thinking, writing, breaking up, putting together.

WEW always needs YOU!!! Write us at:

What She Wents c/o Cleveland Women's Counsel

P. O. Box 18472, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118.

Office Hours: M, T, W, 6-8 p.m., 371-5376

YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES

Regular -$6.00 Contributing -$15,00 Sustaining $25.00 Institutional -$15.00

page 2/January, 1978/What She Wants