Victories for Pro-Choice Candidates

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Abortion rights activists achieved stunning victor. ies in the November election, scoring significantly in a number of races around the nation. Seventy-one percent of candidates supported by the National Abortion Rights Action League Political Action Committee (NARAL-PAC) won.

According to Betsy Chotin, NARAL-PAC Director, the most critical victory was the defeat of a ballot measure in Oregon which would have prohibited all state-funded abortions there. This marks the only time that voters have been asked to decide this issue in a referendum. "The anti-abortion referendum is clearly unsuccessful as a political technique," said Chotin. Although anti-abortionists have tried to place referenda on this subject on the ballot in Colorado, Washington and California, Oregon was the only one to collect enough signatures. With over an 80 percent turnout, Oregonians by a 52-48 percent margin chose to keep-abortion funded as part of necessary health services in their state.

Other races of interest are as follows: Among pro-choice winners in gubernatorial races, candidates were involved in four critical and closely fought trials. Colorado's Dick Lamm, who as a state legislator introduced the nation's first law to permit therapeutic abortions, beat challenger Ted Strickland. In Illinois, anti-abortion critics were unsuc cessful in their attempt to defeat the pro-choice incumbent, James Thompson. In the race for the Pennsylvania governor's seat, Richard Thornburgh won over vocal abortion foe Pete Flaherty. Michigan Democrat William Fitzgerald opposed pro-choice Governor William Milliken, intending to pick up anti-abortion support for his challenge. Milliken easily defeated Fitzgerald, evidencing Michigan voter support for abortion rights.

Pro-choice activists in Washington State helped elect two new congressmen who favor the right to choose. In the seventh district, Mike Lowry successfully challenged abortion foe incumbent John Cunningham. The second district open seat was won by Al Swift, who defeated a well-financed abortion opponent, John Nance Garner. A strong pro-choice

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leader in the House of Representatives, Abner Mikva, was re-elected in Illinois.

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New York's Geraldine Ferraro, a strong supporter of abortion rights, defeated her anti-abortion opponent, and California's Vic Fazio was elected to an open seat vacated by Robert Leggett. As a state legislator, Fazio has often taken leadership on abortion rights legislation. Two Pennsylvania elections show that Catholic voters also elect candidates with strong pro-choice records. Robert Edgar, a suburban Philadelphia clergyman, will continue to represent his 57 percent Roman Catholic district despite the vocal anti-abortion campaign directed at his leadership on abortion rights. In Pittsburgh, abortion foe Stan Thomas counted on the 42 percent Catholic 14th District to support his challenge to incumbent Wiliam Moorehead. Pro-choice Moorehead soundly defeated Thomas. NARAL-PAC expects the 96th Congress to vote much like its immediate predecessor on the abortion issue. An important and critical upset was the defeat of abortion foe Robert Griffin, Senator from Michigan, who was ousted by Carl Levin with support from pro-choice activists. Among other key gains was pro-choice candidate Bill Bradley's win over right-wing-sponsored Jeffrey Bell from New Jersey.

In the races where progressive incumbents were defeated and did have a pro-choice position, with one exception, abortion was never a prominent issue in the campaign. In the case of Sen. Clark of Iowa, the exception, his defeat is linked to his opposition to tuition tax credits for parochial school attendance, in addition to his pro-choice position. Other factors were his deep involvement in African affairs, and a generally liberal image in a mid-Western farm state.

Chotin acknowledged that the 'pro-choice cause did lose one of its most outspoken champions with the defeat of Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke. While his leadership on the abortion issue will be sorely missed by pro-choice proponents, his successor, Paul Tsongas (D), is also pro-choice. Thus, clearly, the abortion issue was not a factor.

Pregnant Teens: A No-Win Situation

New York (LNS)--Since 1974, unmarried Massachusetts women under 18 have had to secure parental or court permission to get an abortion. Recognizing that "a minor has a basic constitutional right to abortion" which may be impeded by "potentially hostile" parents, the U.S. Supreme Court in late October agreed to review the 1974 law.

ROMAN QUESTIONS ARICH MOVAN ANSWER TO GET IN ABORTION:

MYST AVONER -BJ?TION: WERE YOU RAPED?? VICTIM OF INCESTY

FLLOUT DER

WOULD YOU SUFFER SEVERE PHY

SICAL DAMAGE

PARENTAL CONSENT?

ETC

ETC.

ETC.

WITHOUT ONE? 16?

OVER

CASH OR CHARGE?

JL

The Militant/LNS

Due primarily to pressure from Boston's Parents Aid Society, headed by abortion rights lobbyist Bill Baird, the case received the Supreme Court's attention after being hobbled for two years in Massachusetts state courts. Contending that parental consent for minors seeking abortions constituted a form of ageism, Baird argued that abortion should be equally accessible to all women, regardless of age.

Under the 1974 law, a minor's right to abortion

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would be determined by her parents and not by the minor herself. This meant a minor too could unwillingly bear an unwanted child. Her other option would be to go to court where a judge would rule whether she was "mature" enough to undergo an abortion. In both cases, the minor's right to abortion is no longer her decision.

"What this law has accomplished," Leslie Cagan of the Boston Abortion Coalition told LNS, "is the utter confusion of many young women about birth control and abortion rights. If this minors' law is upheld and other states view it as precedent-setting, young women across the country will be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Or they'll do what I suspect they've been compelled to do: lie about their ages or fake parental permission forms."

Circuit Judge Bailey Aldrich ultimately agrees with Cagan's line of reasoning. The minor, he wrote about the 1974 law, finds herself in a "no-win situation. If she loses the judicial proceedings, [she will experience] a personal blow. . . . If she wins, she is likely to find herself in an even worse situation,' one in which she risks, at least for some time, the possible deterioration of her relationship with her And in more drastic cases, she is left family. vulnerable to parents who are potential or actual child abusers.

In any case, if the 1974 law stays on the books, a minor will be given the same grim option, now a tradition among women denied access to affordable abortion: the dangerous back alley operation.

Both of Alabama's new Senators, Howell Heflin and Donald Stewart, support a woman's right to choose abortion. In the House, abortion rights supporter John Buchanan was re-elected over an anti-abortion challenger.

"Despite lots of talk about it being a liability for candidates to have a pro-choice position, it simply wasn't so," Chotin said. "Support for a woman's right to choose won an impressive victory in the election. While organized labor and other groups mince no words about set-backs for their causes when the new Congress convenes, the pro-choice position has held its ground. This should send a clear message to candidates and pul lic officials that they can speak on the issue, vote their conscience, and also get elected. No pro-choice incumbents were defeated in this election because of their stand on abortion. The vote shows that the conviction of America's pro-choice majority cuts across party lines and extends to every region of the country."

National polls do, in fact, show broad national support for a woman's right to abortion. A January 1978 Gallup poll put the figure at 75 percent in favor of abortion being legal. On the question of public funding, there is more support than opposition. an August 1978 AP-NBC News poll put the figures at 49 percent in favor, 43 percent opposed, showing increased support over previous polls.

NARAL-PAC, formed in 1977, is the national pro-choice Political Action Committee which supports pro-choice candidates and issues, educates candidates on the abortion issue, and coordinates pro-choice campaign workers.

FLOC BOYCOTT

Support the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) boycott! By not buying the following products, you will help in forcing negotiations for better wages and conditions for mid-west farm workers:

Libby-McNeill-Libby All Nestle's products (Nestle's is the parent company of Libby-McNeillLibby). All vegetables, fruits, meats and juices with Libby's label.

Campbell's Campbell's soup, Swanson frozen prepared dinners and meats, V-8 vegetable juice, Franco-American products. Recipe pet food, and Pepperidge Farm products.

Let these companies know that you mean business by sending them the labels from the products you have used (had on hand) and telling them that you will no longer use these foods until negotiations are concluded satisfactorily. The addresses are on the labels.

PLANT CONTRACEPTIVES

(Her Say). The World Health Organization (WHO) is collaborating with scientists and institutions around the world to investigate natural contraceptive agents which come from plants. WHO reports that its "Task Force on Indigenous Plants for Fertility Regulation' has already compiled data on more than 3,000 species of plants which have been traditionally used in Third World countries as contraceptive or abortive agents.

Among the plants WHO is studying is the common garden pea plant which, as a major part of Tibet's diet, reportedly kept the population of that country at the same figure for 200 years. The acacia plant, which contains lactic acid, a known spermicidal substance, is also being studied.

WHO says that many of the plant's used in folklore medicine of Third World cultures which scientists have virtually ignored until now may prove to be very effective and safe contraceptives in the future.