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Bishops Blast Abortion Rights

On November 5, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops endorsed the constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch which would empower Congress and individual states to adopt laws regulating and banning abortion. In the past, while favoring an outright ban on abortion, the bishops have not endorsed specific legislation. The new position was presented in testimony in the Senate. The bishops said they believed sweeping antiabortion measures could not pass Congress now, and that it was better to back an "achievable solution," in the words of Archbishop John R. Roach, president of the bishops' conference. "There is a strong urgency to get something," the archbishop said. "The Hatch amendment has a real possibility of passing".

Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York, chairperson of the Bishops Conference Committee for ProLife Activity, also testified, arguing that the Supreme * Court decision of 1973 upholding the right to abortion had "rendered defenseless before the law millions of the unborn and has created a system of selective justice where some members of society decide who will live and who will die". The Cardinal said that the situation had become a "national scandal" and that legislative action was necessary.

Archbishop Roach said that the church had made "a change in game plan" and was now backing specific legislation because of the "cumulative horror" of elective abortions.

As advanced by Senator Hatch, a Utah Repub-. lican, the amendment now backed by the bishops would overturn the Supreme Court decision. In an attempt to win over wavering votes, however, the Hatch amendment does not ban abortion, but leaves the matter to legislative action by Congress or individual states.

One obstacle facing the Hatch amendment is that antiabortion forces remain divided over the best road to take. One faction favors the so-called human life amendment, which would outlaw abortion in virtually all cases, except to save the life of the mother. Another faction has proposed legislation that would, by simple statute, declare that life begins at the moment of conception. This would have the effect of defining abortion as murder.

Moreover, while Senator Hatch portrays his bill as a compromise, it is still opposed by forces that favor giving each woman a choice on the question of abor-. tion. A group called Catholics for a Free Choice, for instance, asserts that the bishops "represent a minority position" among. American Catholics. Patricia McMahon, executive director of the group, said that in public opinion polls a majority of Roman

Women Editors Fewer

(HerSay)-It may be another 73 years before women assume equality at the newspaper editor's desk, according to a research study carried out by Dorothy Jurney which appeared in the October edition of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Bulletin. Jurney found in a survey of American newspapers that women are now executive editors of. only two papers with circulations of over 25,000, and hold no top jobs at all in the papers with circulations of over 50,000. In addition, she reported that women associate editors are actually shrinking in number. A year ago, she says, thirteen women held that post; now, only ten do.

Male editors reportedly often argue that women haven't been in the business long enough to be editors themselves. However, Jurney quotes one woman editor as saying-that idea is,"considered a crock in a profession where women have worked since the Revolutionary War”,

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Catholics generally favor legalized abortion.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, reflected the sizable resistance to the Hatch proposal. He also chided conservatives who oppose abortion while slashing social programs that aid children. "The right to life," he said, "should also refer to the quality of life after an infant is born".

Under pressure from conservatives, Senator Howard Baker, the Senate majority leader, has made a "firm commitment" to allow antiabortion forces to bring legislation to the floor this year, after major economic bills are passed. But the lack of time and the continued disagreement among abortion foes could put off the debate until next year.

-Excerpted from The New York Times November 6, 1981

Church Women Rally

(HerSay)-Women Take Back the Church, a group which favors ordination for women, held a march and rally outside the Hilton Hotel in

Washington, D.C. on November 15 outside the annual meeting of the American Catholic Bishops. The women used a trumpet and cried in unison, ping that "as the walls of Jericho once crumbled, one day the institutional walls of injustice for women in the church will collapse".

Canada Women Gain

The proposed new Canadian constitution will include recognition of equal rights for women and stillto-be-defined rights for the nation's Indian and Eskimo populations.

However, when the resolution asking Britain to transform the North America Act of 1867 into a purely Canadian constitution with the principal addition of a bill of rights was introduced last month, it was discovered that the bill of rights had been qualified by a clause allowing the provinces to override it on equal rights for women. It was also discovered that the subject of aboriginal rights had been dropped altogether from the bill. Demonstrations and intensive lobbying in Ottawa and the provincial capitals were carried on by indignant feminist and native groups. Finally, provincial opposition to the clause on women was overcome, although aboriginal rights remain to be defined.

French Birth Control

(HerSay)--The socialist government of France last month kicked off a nationwide campaign to let citizens know about birth control. The campaign, launched at the request of France's Women's Rights Ministry, features a series of 30-second prime time TV commercials aimed at letting the public knowhow to use the pill, the IUD, and other forms of birth control. The birth control push is a big switch. for France, a predominantly Catholic country. Not until 1967 did use of such devices become legal there.

NATIONAL NEWS

Breast is Best

(HerSay)-Infant formula activists in several states have begun approaching hospitals directly in an effort to convince them that handing out free samples of infant formula is not healthy for the babies they treat. Lois Salisbury of Public Advocates, a public interest law firm in San Francisco, says she has heard reports of direct persuasion techniques being used at hospitals in Wisconsin, New York, California and the State of Washington. These approaches come in the wake of an administrative petition filed by Salisbury's firm on behalf of a broad coalition of church, Third World and women's groups, asking that all infant formula distributed in American be labeled, in both English and Spanish, "Breast is Best". The petition, filed last spring with the government, charges that at least 5,000 American infants die annually as a result of being improperly or inadequately fed with infant formula, when breastfeeding might have saved them.

Part of the problem, Salisbury says, is that lowincome women, who receive the free sample packets at hospitals, often believe they are doing the best for their children when they "follow the doctor's orders" and use the formula. These families, public advocates charge, often cannot afford to use the product full-strength, or, because of language difficulties, prepare the formula improperly.

Salisbury says both the Food and Drug Administration and the Health and Human Services Department are now reviewing the request for labeling and should reply by December 15. Women concerned about child health, however, are apparently not waiting for the deadline, and have already begun eir own grassroots campaign to let American hospitals know they disapprove of the sample handouts.

No More Cinderella

(HerSay)-Falling in love and living happily ever after is nothing but a myth, according to the Girls Clubs of America. The clubs have set up a national resource center to warn young women away from the Cinderella syndrome. The center will reportedly emphasize career planning, education, vocational training and sexual, moral and physical development.

Says center director Patricia Turner-Smith, "The Cinderella syndrome that somebody is going to come along and take care of [girls] has overshadowed the reality that they're going to be working a good part of their lives". Turner-Smith hopes the Cinderella myth will be laid to rest by the new center, which reportedly represents the first national attempt to collect and disseminate information on girls' real-life needs.

Saudi Women Revolt

(HerSay)-Progressive-minded Saudi women, mostly an upper-class elite who have been permitted * an education, are staging a quiet revolution in that country by beginning to rebel against arranged marriages and to push for daycare facilities.

The most important gains are in education. One major university now awards scholarships for women to study abroad, while another is reportedly allowing women to attend graduate classes taught by men. Women students are generally segregated.

Some free-lance journalists are even going so far as to urge revolution and the burning of the abayah, the traditional garment which covers a woman from head to toe..

D&lember 1901

WPAJES

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