Taxes
continued from page 1
enue reports a 55 percent in
crease in Oregon.
“We have been busy with elec
tronic filing this year more than
ever,” Eugene H & R Block Premi
um tax consultant Betty Williams
said. “Everybody seems to be us
ing it.”
Both IRS and ODR officials say
they will continue promoting
electronic tax filing until they
reach the goal set by Congress to
have 80 percent of all tax reports
filed via the Internet by 2007.
In addition to saving paper, elec
tronic tax filing reduces the possi
bility for errors and makes the en
tire process quicker for both tax
collectors and taxpayers, ODR
spokeswoman Deni Cooperrider
said.
The only catch to filing elec
tronically is that both the federal
and state income tax reports must
be filed together, Cooperrider said.
“On-line filing cuts down on the
number of steps in the process,”
she said. “We certainly hope peo
ple will continue using e-filing in
increasing numbers.”
On the taxpayers’ end, on-line
filing programs safeguard against
errors by checking math computa
tions. Once the file is completed, it
is sent directly to the appropriate
department, thereby reducing the
possibility of mistakes being made
in the mail room or tax collectors’
offices, where data from hard
copies is entered into computers.
Another advantage for taxpay
ers, Cooperrider said, is that elec
tronic filing yields quicker refund
payments.
“Refunds could be received as
fast as nine days, where it could
take eight weeks, even when there
are no complications,” Cooperrid
er said.
The tax season usually creates
last-minute filers flocking to post
offices to meet the deadline, IRS
spokesman David Haikin said. By
using the Internet to file, however,
he said taxpayers can now stay at
home and avoid the crowds.
CCwe have been busy
with electronic filing this
year more than ever.
Everybody seems to be
using it
Betty Williams
Eugene H & R Block
Premium
tax consultant Jy
McCorvey
continued from page 1
like a movie plot, full of unexpected twists
and turns, leading to a destination no one
could have imagined.
McCorvey, 52, shared her story, which
she calls “Won by Love,’’.with nearly 400
attendees Saturday at a conference spon
sored by Oregon Right to Life, the state’s
largest anti-abortion political organization.
When the short, red-haired woman ap
peared before the audience at Valley River
Inn’s conference center, audience mem
bers spontaneously rose to their feet.
One attendee didn’t jump to his feet, but
it wasn’t because he disliked McCorvey’s
stance on abortion. John Dreiling, 25, a stu
dent at Lane Community College, was
born with spinal bifida, which requires
him to use a wheelchair. Describing him
self as a disabled Oregonian, he praised
McCorvey for her change of heart.
“She’s realized that abortion is the tak
ing of a human life,” he said. “Abortion
goes to the heart of a person with a disabil
ity. My life was certainly at risk, and if my
parents hadn’t been opposed to abortion,
it would have been completely legal to
abort me.”
McCorvey made her stance on abortion
crystal clear.
“I’m happy to report that I have become
100 percent pro-life without exception,
without compromise and without apolo
gy,” she said.
Born in Louisiana in 1947 as Norma
Leah Nelson, McCorvey was married at
age 16, was divorced shortly thereafter and
was a mother twice before she became
pregnant in 1969 with her third child —
the famous “Roe” baby.
After seeking to obtain a secret abortion
she met Sarah Weddington, the young
lawyer who filed a class-action suit, and
took her case all the way to the Supreme
Court. McCorvey, meanwhile, gave birth to
a baby girl, whom she gave up for adop
tion. She chose to remain anonymous and
drifted out of the public eye.
In 1984, McCorvey said she received a
letter from Weddington, asking her to lend
support to the abortion rights cause. Thus,
Jane Roe went public. She granted inter
views, gave speeches and published her
autobiography. There were articles, televi
sion shows and even a movie that won
two Emmy awards.
In the mid-1990s, she was busy working
at an abortion clinic in Dallas. But the
abortion clinic would be getting new
neighbors — and not just any neighbors. A
local chapter of Operation Rescue, the
controversial anti-abortion organization
that advocates 1960s-style civil disobedi
ence, moved in next-door.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, there is going to
be bloodshed,’” McCorvey said. “I didn’t
know whether to call the press or the po
lice, so I called both.”
Although she didn’t elaborate at the
conference on the clashes between pro
testers and clinic employees, she said that
chief among her adversaries in those days
was Philip “Flip” Benham, Operation Res
cue’s local leader in Dallas.
McCorvey said the pair’s shouting
matches melted into conversations when
Benham approached her to apologize for a
hurtful statement he had directed toward
her.
“I was very moved for some reason
[and] I couldn’t figure out why,” she said.
She began talking to the protesters be
tween her duties at the clinic.
“They were always smiling, and they
i (I’m happy to report that l
have become 100 percent pro-life
without exception, without com
promise and without apology.
Norma McCorvey
formerly known as Jane Roe
were always happy,” she said. “I thought it
was disgusting. But I thought, ‘I’m not
happy. What do they have that makes
them happy?”’
Soon after, she accepted an invitation to
attend a local evangelical church. There
she became a born-again Christian. Images
of her baptism were displayed across the
nation in August of 1995.
She quit her job at the clinic and began
answering telephones for Operation Res
cue. In 1997, she formed her own organi
zation called Roe No More, and she cur
rently travels the country speaking at anti
abortion events. In 1998, she was con
firmed into the Roman Catholic Church.
“I did drugs. I did a lot of things, but
when I was baptized, all that was washed
away as far as the east is from the west,”
she said. “I’m a Jesus freak. It’s the best
thing in the world that could happen to a
young woman is to love God and to love
his word and to be his servant.”
As McCorvey ended her 30-minute
speech, audience members rose to their
feet once again.
A 43-year-old woman who asked that
her name not be used because she hadn’t
discussed the situation with her adopted
daughter, said she appreciated McCorvey’s
speech because she felt it was genuine.
“I had an abortion when I was in my
20s, and it’s the biggest regret of my life,”
she said. “Norma’s made some of the same
mistakes I went through. I had no idea that
she’d been through such a tough life. She
speaks to the common people.”
For Father Michael Boyle, the assistant
pastor of St. Eugene Orthodox Church,
McCorvey’s speech was a challenge to him
to maintain a loving attitude in the abor
tion debate.
“The one thing that struck me is that
God wins the hearts of people with truth,”
he said. “We think we need to have our ar
guments lined up, but in the end, it’s love
that makes the difference. We get so caught
up in the politics, that we forget about the
cup of cold water.”
r'
Buy an ice-cold
Coca-Cola-classic
from any specially
marked on-campus
vending machine
and you cduld win
a Blockbuster $5
gift Card. Offer
ends May 4, 2000.
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