IW Why?

Too many chefs cause stew at rights conference

By Richard C. Widman

Staff Writer

COLUMBUS Bogged down in parliamentary procedure and behindthe-scenes maneuvering, the Ohio International Women's Year Conference fractured and adjourned abruptly late yesterday afternoon before completing much of its business.

"I think the adjournment came out of the sheer exhaustion of those attending the conference," said Susan

Frampton of Athens, media

chairman.

The vote to adjourn with 16 resolutions still not voted on, and more expected from the floor, was surprise.

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Commenting earlier on the full progress and voting on state resolutions, the counting of paper ballots on national resolutions in the election of 56 state delegates to the November national conference in Houston, Tex., state vice chairman Mrs. Lois Goodman of Shaker Heights, remarked:

"What did you expect? We women are just babies at running something like this."

There were unconfirmed reports that early counting indicated that the Ohio Right to Life Society, Inc., would win control of the Ohio delegation.

Mrs. Pat Pichler, of Parma, Right to Life state chairman, declined to predict victory but promised to challenge the results of the voting if they "look wrong."

She said the society had obtained affidavits from competent participants, stating how they voted, in the event that proof is needed to challenge the results.

Possibly the largest group from among the nearly 2,800 persons who registered at the conference, the Right to Life group had the best chance to win control.

The next largest group probably was a collection of lesbian groups, some 300 strong.

The rest represented diverse groups, arranging from the Eagle Forum, an anti-Equal Rights Amendment organization, to the Na-

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Today's Living

MONDAY, JUNE 13, 1977

tional Organization For Women (NOW), Women On Wheels (WOW), Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), to the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and a number of others.

Mrs. Pichler pointed out that no matter which group wins control of the delegation of the national conference, the delegates will not be required to carry to Houston the ProAbortion Resolution adopted by the Ohio conference.

The Pro-Abortion Amendment, the only one of the 16 that came out of a series of society workshops to be voted on before the conference adjourned, reads as follows:

"Resolved that the President of the United States and appropriate government agencies support the right of every individual to the fulfillment of basic human needs, such as adequate food, shelter, clothing and medical attention, including all legal methods a woman may use to control her fertility."

It won by a slim majority.

The Pro-Life Group unsuccessfully: attempted to amend a resolution to ask the government to protect all human life "from conception to natural death."

A resolution adopted from the floor asking for a federal guarantee for equal rights for black women won overwhelmingly.

There was little joy but even less confrontation throughout the conference, despite considerable rumors ---among the mongering that various groups would employ illegal tactics to disrupt meetings.

There were constant reports from the feminist groups that violence had broken out, blamed usually on the Right to Life group and sometimes on the lesbians.

Some of the reports given to news

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reporters discrediting the lesbians and Right to Life groups sometimes were from high-ranking officials of YE the feminist organizations.w.

Checking with Columbus police and fire department security guards dis closed that all the reports were false.

"It was a pretty quiet meeting, considering the different types of people who were here," said Columbus firefighter J. Chapman.

Reports that two national figures viewed as representing the conservative view on women's rights would attend to cause trouble also proved false.

Phyllis Schafly, leader of the fight against ERA, and songstress Anita Bryant, who led the successful campaign in Dade County, Fla., against homosexuals last week, did not show up at the Ohio conference.

'What did you expect? We women are just babies at running something like this.'