ศ

Administrative Remedies (?)

By Ruth K. Finkelstein This summer, advocates for reproductive rights won an important victory when Title X of the federal Public Health Service Act was reauthorized as a categorical program. This act (known simply as Title X) provides subsidized family planning services to low income and teenage women. Despite opposition by the Reagan administration, the Budget Conference Committee voted to continue this program.

However, the administration is far from ready to concede defeat on this issue. A "dispensation" letter from President Reagan to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was obtained by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. An excerpt is reprinted here:

...I regret that we do not have the votes to defeat the family planning program and, assuming this is the best you can do under the circumstances, I reluctantly conclude that the best course is to enter into the proposed conference agreement. Perhaps we can remedy some of the problems in the family planning program administratively during the three years that it will remain as a categorical grant....

The "administrative remedies" are becoming obvious and quite effective in hampering the nation's family planning program. Two current and two proposed "remedies" are mentioned below.

The first "remedy" has been to defer spending the full amount authorized by Congress for family planning. During the first 50 days of the 1982 fiscal year, the Department of Health and Human Services distributed money as if Reagan had gotten the additional 12 percent cuts he requested in September, even though Congress did not in fact cut the Title X family planning program. This action resulted in a loss of $4.5 million to the Title X program. Several health providers have filed suit against David Stockman and Secretary Schweiker for illegally impounding unspent funds. No decision has yet been reached in the case.

The second "administrative remedy" abuses federal audits by both the Department of Health and Human Services and the General Accounting Office to harass Planned Parenthood, the largest private family planning provider in the country. The ap-

parent purpose of the audits is to discover whether any Title X money has been used for abortion services or political activities. Both practices would be in violation of the Title X statute. Of the 35 affiliates audited so far, none has been found in violation.

Proposed "remedy" number three limits agencies eligible to receive charitable contributions from federal workers under the Combined Federal Campaign. The new limitation excludes organizations engaging in "political" activities. Targets of the action are named in a Budget Office memo stating that Planned Parenthood, Women's Legal Defense Fund, Federally Employed Women, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund will now be barred from receiving federal workers' donations.

The final measure to hamper the effectiveness of the family planning program is the new proposed Title X regulations. These regs, not yet published for comment, mandate strict parental notice and consent requirements for provision of contraceptive services to teens. These requirements would inhibit services to one of the populations most in need: teenagers..

Administrative remedies are especially insidious because the bureaucrats who create and implement -these measures are less accessible to protest than elected officials. The appointees of the Reagan administration and their appointees are rife with people opposed to abortion, to reproductive rights, and to women's rights.

Attorney Benched

(HerSay)-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor survived questions about abortion and equal rights, but attorney Judith Whittaker did not. The Washington Post reports that Whittaker was to have been the Reagan Administration's first female nominee to a U.S. Appeals Court, the level just below Supreme Court. However, says the Post, Whittaker's nomination chances ended after conservative GOP members complained she was "insufficiently Republican". Objections were also raised about her views on abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. Whittaker, currently a corporate attorney in Kansas City, claims she was the victim of a "campaign of misinformation

First Black Woman Publisher

According to The Call and Post (Jan. 2, 1982), Pam Johnson last month became the first black woman publisher of a general circulation daily newspaper, the Ithaca Journal. The second black to hold such a position (Robert Maynard became publisher of the Oakland Tribune carlier in 1981), Johnson holds a doctoral degree in journalism and educational psychology, and has worked 15 years in the field of journalism as a reporter, newscaster, educator and executive.

When asked why she thought it had taken so long for a black woman to reach such a position, Johnson remarked that the newspaper owners should be asked that question, since she knew many black journalists who were overqualified for such a position.

She went on to point out that America is deprived of the total news picture by having so few black newspaper publishers and editors. Black journalists are uniquely qualified for such positions since they must be bicultural and have a wider perspective. She noted that her own perspective was broader than

D

most whites, since they have not had the ethnic.exposure or exposure to class structure that she had. In addition to learning to be bicultural, she added, blacks must learn to put a positive perspective on it.

Johnson described the "zig-zag career path" by which she moved from one job to another, receiving quick salary jumps and gaining exposure to different management styles. She felt this method could be as effective as the traditional method of being the publisher's son, starting out as a copy boy, and working your way up the ladder. She also believed her transferable skills were a key to her success. Using the book Games Your Mother Never Taught You as a handbook, she learned about the corporate structure and the rules and boundaries of negotiation.

At 36, Johnson is the oldest daughter of a family of five. Her husband and two children have recently moved from thir home. in Virginia to join her in Ithaca, New York, where the Ithaca Journal is located.

** PA

NATIONAL NEWS

Too Many Men

(HerSay)—A two-year study by an anthropologist has finally uncovered what's wrong with Congress-it's run by men. Jack McIver Weatherford, a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of California at San Diego, compares Congress to the male ruling councils of the Swahilis of Kenya which, Weatherford claims, are dominated by ceremonial rituals at the expense of accomplished work.

Weatherford, who worked on the legislative staff of Ohio Senator John Glenn, charges that all male legislators engage in almost-endless posturing on the floor of Congress and in various legislative ceremonies, such as bill-signings. The women of Congress, he notes, "work like Trojans" without nearly as much ceremony.

There's a whole list of things that can be done to reform Congress, says Weatherford, adding "The easiest, simplest way is: if enough women were elected to Congress, they would cut all the ritual”.

Polish Unionist Jailed

(HerSay)—A University of Washington professor is reporting that Anna Walentynowicz, the woman credited with starting the Polish Solidarity movement, was probably one of the first of close to 10,000 Solidarity members arrested in Poland last month. Dr. Vladimir Kaczynski is an economics professor at the University of Washington and a Polish citizen. He says that Walentynowicz, who is not well-known outside of Poland, is far more radical than Lech Walesa, the moderate union spokesperson now being held by the government outside Warsaw.

Kaczynski says Walentynowicz was fired from her job as a crane operator in 1980 for advocating that unions be independent of State and Communist Party affiliation. He says protests against her firing led to the formation of the first Solidarity Union. According to the professor, Walentynowicz was probably one of the first picked up by the Polish Government in its crackdown against the Solidarity Movement. Kaczynski estimates that one-third of the Solidarity leaders are women who also face arrest if they have not already been picked up.

Unions for ERA

(HerSay) The AFL-CIO has joined forces with feminists to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The federation met in late December with Ellie Smeal, President of the National Organization for Women, to offer money and staff support for ERA lobbying. Said one AFL-CIO man, "There's more of a sense of urgency with the ERA's imminent expiration in June".

Feminists and union members together elected three pro-ERA lawmakers in Virginia last month. NOW also expects strong labor support in Illinois.

Senator Stripped

(HerSay) California State Senator and Status of Women Commissioner John Schmitz was stripped of key senate committee posts and his commission seat after describing pro-choice advocates in a press release as "bull-dykes" and ""murderous marauders". The Senator went on to characterize audiences at hearings on his proposed anti-abortion amendment as "a sea of hard, Jewish and arguably female faces" and "pre-organized infestations of imported lesbians from anti-male and pro-abortion queer groups in San Francisco and other centers of decadence".

January, 1982/What She Wants/Page $ shel Vilukkt anew one T60WW #RES