NATIONAL NEWS

RRNN FOR CHOICE

In Chicago on February 25, a national coalition of 18 feminist and women's health groups formed the Reproductive Rights National Network (RRNN). The coalition believes that women have a right to control their own bodies and, therefore, plan to educate and organize both women and men around the following working principles of unity:

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1. The right of all women to safe, legal abortions regardless of ability to pay.

2. Freedom from sterilization abuse, including freedom from forced sterilization in the workplace, and support of the HEW guidelines designed to prevent sterilization abuse of women on Medicaid.

3. Abortion rights and sterilization abuse are inseparably linked to other issues of reproductive freedom, as well as to problems of access and availability of childcare and decent health services.

4. We are an activist network seeking to organize women and men in different constituencies and places, and we will work in coalitions and alliances with other groups to achieve these ends.

We therefore have adopted the following plan of action to realize these goals:

1. A national petition campaign to defeat the Hyde Amendment this year. This Amendment, attached to the federal appropriations bill, has cut off federal funds for most medicaid abortions for the past two years.

2. A combined counter demonstration and conference at the national "Right to Life" convention in Cincinnati on June 23.

3. A fall mobilization to be planned with other coalitions and organizations, which will focus on defeat of the Hyde Amendment this year.

We invite other coalitions, women's and community organizations, and trade unions who support our principles of unity to work with us on any or all of these issues.

For more information, contact Barbara Winslow, 321-6143.

Pro-Choice Gains

Washington, D.C. (excerpted from the NARAL News Release)-Public support for the freedom to choose abortion has increased dramatically. The percentage of Americans who support the portion of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortions during the first three months of pregnancy increased 7% in the last year and a half. According to a newlyreleased ABC News-Harris Survey, 60% of Americans support the Supreme Court decision, 37% oppose it, and 3% are undecided.

"It is clear that as public debate on the issue has intensified, even more Americans realize the benefit to women, families, and the general public of legal abortion. As they have had the opportunity to consider the facts thoroughly, they have overwhelmingly thrown their support to the side of choice," said Karen Mulhauser, Executive Director of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL).

The ABC News-Harris Survey was conducted between February 8th and 12th, using a cross-section of 1,199 adults.

FAVOR 1973 SUPREME COURT DECISION ON ABORTION

Feb '73 (%) 52

Feb

July

'79 (%)

'77 (%)

Auß '76 (%)

Favor Oppose

April '75 (%) 54

Not sure

Yvonne Wanrow Retrial Set

The Spokane Prosecutor's Office has scheduled a second trial for Yvonne Wanrow on April 16, 1979. The new trial follows the recent ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court which upheld the constitutionality of the state's felony statute (see WSW, September, 1978).

Yvonne Wanrow, a native American, was initially charged in 1972 with felony murder and first degree assault for killing William Wesler, a white man and a known child molester. Yvonne shot him when he entered the house where she, a neighbor woman, their children, and some relatives had gathered for protection from him-protection which the police had refused to provide.

Yvonne was convicted by an all-white jury in 1973, partially on the basis that a tape recording of her call to the police after the shooting was not "hysterical" enough to prove her innocence. The conviction was reversed on appeal in 1977 on the grounds that the tape recording was illegally used as evidence and the judge had failed to instruct the jury to consider Yvonne's actions from the perspective of a woman's right to self-defense.

Rather than drop the charges, Spokane Prosecutor Donald Brockett pressed for a retrial. Yvonne's lawyers then appealed on the grounds that the felony statute under which she was charged was unconstitutional. Washington is one of the few states that retains a law providing that the prosecution need not prove any intent to kill, but only that a death resulted

while a felony was being committed. In Yvonne's case, the prosecution charges that she was in the process of committing assault upon Wesler and he died as the result.

You can help Yvonne Wanrow in two ways. First, you can write to Prosecutors Donald Brockett and Fred Caruso and to the editors of the Spokane Chronicle and the Spokesman Review asking that the case be dropped. Second, you can contribute to the Yvonne Wanrow Defense Committee. The committee is planning a benefit on April 14 and is asking such celebrities as Marlon Brando, Floyd Westerman, Max Gail and Coretta King to attend. The pur-

pose of the benefit is not only to raise money for Yvonne's defense, but to raise the consciousness of the Spokane community about the abuse from the system which continues to engulf Yvonne after seven years.

Cece Verhoogen Yvonne Wanrow Defense Committee Spokane Peace and Justice Center

E. 224 Sharp

Spokane, Washington 99202

1-509-327-8913

ERA Attack Masquerades as Fair Play

Less than two weeks before the original deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

Nor iron Bars a Jail;

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But 'til the E.R.A. is Won, We're only Out On Bail.

SUPPORT THE SOUAL MONTS AMENDMENT for American Womandoo !

proposal is under fresh attack, with eight states, including Ohio, considering measures to rescind or

otherwise nullify their approval.

Four of the 35 states which have ratified the FRA have already rescinded their actions, although the legality of the votes to rescind is uncertain. A fifth state, Kentucky, voted to rescind its approval, but the measure was vetoed by the acting governor, a woman, and the state's position remains unclear.

Some of the lawmakers supporting resolutions to rescind ratification say they are opposed not so much to the amendment itself, as to the extension of the deadline. Rhode Island Rep. Charles E. Beldelli, for example, said the extension "flies in the face of good old American fair play."

An Associated Press survey showed that resolu tions to rescind approval or to nullify ratification if the amendment is not passed by the required 38 states by the original March 22 deadline also are pending in Delaware, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Texas Wisconsin, and Ohio, where a House Joint Resolution for Rescission was introduced February 23.

South Dakota rescinded its ratification carly in March, joining Idaho, Nebraska and Tennessee. Attempts to rescind ratification were defeated this year in Indiana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

Proposals calling for approval of the ERA have been defeated this year in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia; the amendment suffered a setback in Illinois when an attempt to change Senate rules to make it easier to ratify was defeated.

The Nevada defeat followed a non-binding advisory referendum in last November's election when the ERA lost, two-to-one. A proposal for a public referendum at the time of the August 1980 primary is pending in Missouri, where the ERA has been defeated twice.

Supporters of the ERA say they are confident they will win ratification in time to meet the new June 30, 1982 deadline. Opponents are equally confident they will block the amendment.

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-The Plain Dealer

March 11, 1979

Page 4/What She Wants/April, 1979