Abortion for the poor question stalled
By MARY BETH ALLEN
Of the Emerald
Oregon welfare recipients were kept in
suspense for yet another day on the ques
tion of whether or not abortion will be one of
the services included in their Medicaid be
nefits.
In yet another stall tactic Thursday at the
capital in Salem, the state Legislative
Emergency Board rejected 8-7 a motion by
Sen. Keith Burbidge, D-Salem, to continue
state funding of welfare abortions, and ap
proved a motion postponing the final deci
sion until tomorrow.
The decision to halt funds came in spite
of poignant but restrained testimony by
Linda Kaeser, an administrator for the State
Adult and Family Services division.
Kaeser’s agency had recommended con
tinuing complete funding of abortions for
women welfare recipients.
Kaeser had maintained that $1.6 million
was necessary to keep the welfare abortion
program in existence. Much of her tes
timony was aimed at dispelling what she
considers myths about the program. If the
welfare abortion proponents can persuade
the swing vote on the 15-member commit
tee, Sen. Jack Ripper, D-North Bend, that
abuses such as affluent women utilizing the
welfare abortion program can be checked,
the motion may still have a chance at pas
sage.
"Data indicates minimal utilization of
state-funded abortions by women from
middle and upper-class backgrounds,'’ said
Kaeser. She also stressed that “the inci
dence of abortions among our clients is
substantially the same as that among the
general public.”
Apparently in answer to other accusa
tions, she said that there is “no general use
of abortion as contraceptive procedure”
among welfare program participants.
In a final plea, Kaeser said, “Our program,
which we are asking you to continue, ap
pears to be used as intended by the legisla
ture as a method of approving the abortion
procedure for women throughout Oregon,
who but for their poverty are representative
of the public at large.”
The pro-abortion forces have been stres
sing the added burden to the taxpayers that
phasing out the abortion program would
create. When questioned after the board’s
vote about this economic approach to the
issue, Kaeser said, “There are reasons for
taking the fiscal approach. The emergency
board deals with funding; the full legislature
decides issues. She added, “This is such
an emotional issue.”
Board members have been bothered by
charges that physicians, hospitals and
clinics around the state have been charging
substantially higher prices to those patients
on welfare than non-welfare patients
Kaeser revealed in her Thursday testimony
that one such clinic, Portland’s Lovejoy
Clinic, has been charged guilty of such
practices, and that the agency is involved in
trying to recover $120,000 in overcharges.
EMU renovation won’t raise food prices
it me tiviu i-isriDowi is reno
vated, repayment will not come
from higher food prices, says
EMU Director Adell McMillan.
On Wednesday, Dusty Rhodes,
EMU board chairer, said the
$100,000 necessary to remodel
the '50s style soda bar would be
repaid to the state from food ser
vice revenues. McMillan says
Rhodes’ information was not en
tirely correct.
The EMU Board and the Uni
versity Administration have put
the request for funds on the Capital
Construction Request list, which
goes to the State Board of Higher
Education. If the state board ap
proves the request, it then goes to
the Legislature. The funds are
slated for the 1979-81 biennium
year.
Eventually, however, the
money will come out of student's
pockets. Each term students pay
tuition and incidental, health
center and building fees.
All but the building fee go to in
dividual institutions. The building
fees, though, are pooled and used
to pay off “bonded indebtedness”
from the past building expendi
tures, says McMillan. The Fish
bowl renovation would come from
this building fee.
The other EMU renovations
Rhodes mentioned Wednesday
don’t require enough funds to
make a capital construction re
quest. Renovations ‘‘up to
$50,000” come from EMU build
ing repair reserves, McMillan
says.
The coatroom would cost about
$12,000 to remodel and the bike
area would run about $25,000 to
enclose and remodel, says
Rhodes. The spaces would either
be paid for with EMU funds with
leasers incurring part of the costs,
or leasers would do their own re
modeling.
South University demos asked for input on platform
ouuui university area uemoc
rats may soon be asked for input
concerning the Democratic
party platform for the May primary
contests.
Craig Geary, a University politi
cal science major and a newly
elected precinct committee per
son for the Democratic party, will
be collecting ideas from precinct
no. 239 Democrats to present at
the party platform convention Feb.
4.
Geary estimates there are 200
Demonstrators (Coo"nue<i ,rom page 1>
pected to incite violence.” Davar
was also charged with initiating a
false report after he allegedly
gave officers a false name.
Arrested for trespassing were:
Richard Bruce Weinraub, 28, of
291 E. 17th Ave.; Sheryl Stroll, 22,
of 158 E. 14th Ave.; Cameron
Lynn Kelley, 24, of 1841 E. 15th
Ave.; John Martain Lanier, 26, of
1063 E. 21st Ave.; Falamak Bar
daei, 23, 475 Lindale Dr., Spring
field; Ferey Partovy, 22, of 2065
University St.; Farhad Lankarani,
24, of 2170 Patterson St.; and
David Steven Miller, 25, of W. 10th
Avenue and Madison Street.
Also arrested on trespassing
Something
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Oregon Daily Emerald
charges were: Abdol Hossein, 24,
of 2210 Olive St.; John Joseph
Kaiser II, 21, of 111 N. Garfield St.;
Michelle Marie Bobzien, 21, of
1231 Moss St.; Renee Suzanne
Romanoff, 23, of 717 Highway
99N.; Ismet Guchan, 26, of 2170
Patterson St.; Teresa Louise
Dach, 26, of 1573 Jefferson St.;
Mansoor Ehsan, 20, of 2140 W.
16th Ave.; Ilene Loise Gusfield,
21, of 119 Elkay Dr.; Monica C.
Lazano, 21, of 941 Almaden St.;
Patrick James Zurcher, 29, of
2255 Patterson St.; and Myra Eve
lyn Delay, 23, of 469 E. 15th Ave.
(See related story Page 8)
DUFFY’
13th & Alder
Friday at 4:00 Pitcher Sale
live entertainment (no cover)
Friday & Saturday 9-2
Foxe & Weasel ($1.50 cover)
Tuesday €# Wednesday 9-1
Ron Lloyd 8 John Powell ($1 cover)
Q
to 300 registered Democrats in his
precinct. Within the next week
and-a-half, he will be talking to as
many voters as possible and
spending 15 to 20 minutes with
each voter.
Geary describes himself as an
“ombudsperson" between the
precinct and the political process.
Besides gathering ideas for party
platforms and policies, Geary
says his job is to get people to
vote.
“My responsibility as a citizen is
to be involved, ” Geary says. “Hav
ing been schooled in political sci
ence, I see a lot of things I don't
like. The only way to change those
those things is through the politi
cal process.”’
Geary contacted James
Klonoski, a University professor of
political science and the state
chairer of the Democratic party,
about his desire to become more
involved in party politics. Klonoski
then sent him to the appropriate
people and three weeks later he
received a letter stating he had
been elected a precinct commit
tee person.
Political parties are in need of
people who want to become in
volved, according to Geary.
"There are very few people that
want to be involved,”he says.
"Very few people have the time.”
Geary says he chose the
Democratic party because it is
“the party of progress and
change.”
Coca-Cola’s oil slicks ducks
You’d think all the winter rain this year would
have the Millrace ducks quacking happily, but ironi
cally enough, it seems rain was responsible for a
minor oil spill on the ducks’ home waters Thursday.
It was the second oil spill in a week on the
Millrace, and this time it was traced to the Coca-Cola
Bottling Co. on Franklin Boulevard.
Bob Wood, Coca-Cola production manager,
said the spill resulted from rain washing oil from the
company’s back lot into a drain that leads to the
Millrace.
“It looks much worse than it is,” said Mary
Dinteman of the Department of Environmental Qual
ity, adding that the ducks were in no danger.
Wood said Thursday evening that plans were to
construct a “boom” across the stream to contain the
small oil slick gathering near the footbridge directly
across the street from the University’s science build
ings. He said equipment borrowed from Southern
Pacific railroad would be used in the clean-up.