Daily Emerald
Editorial
Let Supreme Court
abortion ruling stand
if Cov KocnH'i (Ini'Mi l veto tIn* bill, Louisi
.mo mav sunn have the strictest almrtinn law in the
country
Since the l .'.S Supreme (inert s ruling on the W'rb
'•/cr vs Rcprodiu ti\ r Health Servit es case, many states
have tried to pass some very restrictive abortion laws
This fall. Oregon nun be facing some of its own abor
tion law challenges
So tar none of these attempts at restricting legal
abortions has passed l p until now that is
In a last minute attempt to push an anti abortion
bill through the Louisiana State 1 egi.slature the Senate
reworked a Hag burning measure into an anti-abortion
bill Sunday evening previous drat! of the trill
which banned all abortions except those to end preg
nancies that endanger a woman's life, was vetoed last
week in the governor and the Legislature < mild not
muster enough votes tor an override.
The legislators were obviously desperate to pass
some kind of bill restrir ting abortion betore the session
ended
It seems tli.it many of these stair's are trying to pass
anti-abortion bills just to challenge the lU7.t I' S Su
premo Court ruling in Roe vs Wade. Perhaps instead
of trying to overthrow an already existing decision,
these states should work toward ways of preventing
pregnancy and creating lietter programs for helping
women rear and support children once they are born.
The decision to birth an child or to abort it in
volves many considerations. Economics play a large
part in the decision. When legislators contemplate dif
ferent means of outlawing abortion they don’t seem to
look at the whole picture.
The United vStates has one of the worst support sys
tems of any highly industrialized country for low-in
come parents. While many European countries allow
abortion, they also provide excellent medical, psycho
logical and monetary support for women with chil
dren.
By providing these services they express to their
citizens a true value for life. These values have nothing
to do with religion but with a deep respect for human
life
On the other hand the United States offers little as
sistance to families in need Medical benefits often will
not cover the cost of prenatal care and delivery. Aid to
families does not even cover the cost of rent on decent
apartment Food stamps might last three weeks out of
the month
With ser\ i< es like these it is no wonder that many
women chose to have an abortion instead of a child. It
is time that our politicians got off the anti-abortion
bandwagon and tried something new, something as
simple as supporting the life that already exists
Uov Buddy Roemer made a smart move when lie
vetoed the anti abortion bill that i ame at mss his desk
last week We hope he will continue this pattern and
veto the new version.
Attention should not he fen used on women having
abortions, but rather oil how to create a system where
women will not want or need to have them
Oregon I toil* _ _
Emerald
V () H..x »!<*» t ufri>« . Oregon
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SUPREME COURT
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Case of merit
In response to Daralvu
I rappe s art it 1c un Students fni
the I t hit ill lreatnient ofAni
nutlsfO/)/ |uly t| let it he
known that Si I A mil pursue
our request to have I )i Hu hard
M.irriK i:nS researi h protocol
re examined (ontrarx to what
the artic le stated mu request is
not a 1 fraud c hatge ralhei it
is a phw tor Ihriversitx and lo
cal ottu ials to uphold the ver\
siientilii standards that the\
i Irtim to maintain.
\ thorough scan h of tried it al
ahstrai ts revealed dozens of
studies that in our opinion,
"i.loseh approximate Dr
Marroi i o s i urrent proposal
'tel Ins protocol that was suh
nutted to the Institutional Am
mat l are and l'sc Committee
i homed that no sin h research
existed
II Dr Marroi in's protocol
does in hit t i ontain false in
formation, the proper sanctions
should lie imposed It it does
not he should have no worries
It IS not a question of repln a
lion hut one of scientific merit
and mtogriH
I odd llausman
si I A
Omitted
f or some reason, one para
graph of m\ t ommentan "Ho
mosexualitx not a moral is
sue K )i)l Julv t) was omit
led I he gist of m\ argument
was that tiecause a person's
sexual oriental ion doesn't at
tei t i it her pet iple it doesn t
make sense to think ol it as .1
moral issue I raised the follow
ing possible objection: "Will'll
two men or two women st.irt
tout hing or holding hands in
publii . th.it does affet I me it
makes me sit k and so now it's
.1 moral issue bet a use it's at
let ting other people
In mv essay I provided a
counter argument to this objet
lion l aifortunateh . it did not
appear in the published ver
sion Here is the rest of the ar
gument
It's hard to know where we
draw the line between behay
mis that affect other people,
and behaviors that don't l or
example, it might make von
siik to think about wind some
one’s doing behind closed
doors So then what a person
does m the privar v of his or hot
own home does atfei t you in a
way Hut most people would
say that that's not really what
yy e mean by "hay ing an offer !
on someone else t )n the other
hand, most people would agree
that punching someone in the
nose definitely is a case of
having an effect on someone
else " What about public dis
plays ol affection that make
some people sick 1 111 not sure
but niy intuition is that that
case is a lot closer to what
someone does behind closed
doors than it is to punching
someone in the nose
because this paragraph was
omitted, readers might have in
terpreted llle as suggesting that
the argument about 'affet ting
other people posed a substan
tial problem tor my y ieyy I
don't think that this is true at
all
Deborah I risi.h
I’sy i hology
_Letters Policy
The Emerald will attempt to print all letters contain
ing comments on topics of interest to the University
community Comments must be factually accurate
and refrain from personal attacks on the character of
others
Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than
-att words, legible, signed and the identification of
the writer must be verified when the letter is submit
ted .
The l'man)Id reserves the right to edit any letter for
length or style
Letters
Affects people
Honestlv, don't wo have the
right to expet t that efforts to
present or defend a controver
sud position should amount to
something more than merely
stating, "tins is true because I
s.n it is true 1' Yet. that is es
sentially the line of argument
advanced In Deborah Frist h in
her attempt to show that homo
sexuality is not a moral issue
She tells us that if a person's
behavior does not attei t anoth
er person then it is not moral
behavior Hut. when confronted
with her own counter example
of homosexuals holding hands
in publit causing another per
son to feel sii h she is unable
to s.iv il that beli.n ior uitei ts
other persons in wav whit h
counts as moral She merely re
sorts to her unsupported i laim
that homosexuaiitv is not a
moral issue
Yet by using her ovv n del mi
lion namely, that a behav ior
must have an offer t upon others
to be regarded as moral, the
only possible t mu lusion is that
homosexual behavior is moral,
unless, ot i ourse. she is refer
ring onh to totally personal
<u ts sut h ,is onanism
Hut homosexuality .is used
and understood m todu\'s soi l
ety. clearly means most often,
ai ts performed w ith another
person Is that othei person at
fer ted oi not7 ( ertuinh that
other person is after ted and
also frequeiltlv infer ted Isn't
there, as a matter of tai t. a sig
iiifit ant ripple efler t to homo
sexual ‘lovemaking' by which
pernic ions r onsequent es are
being spread worldwide7 Or
r an il be that I rist h has never
heard ot AIDS '
One ot the com fusions com
ing out ot the recent confer
ernes in s.iii Francisco was
that taking into ai count all
i auses. the single most impor
tant reasons tor tile spread ot
AIDS in the I'nited States is
unprotected sex In white, male
homosexuals
flow's that lor not affecting
another person
Dennis Hrow n
Eugene