Opinion
THE CLACKAMAS PRINT
April 19,1989
Page 2
_____ __________________________________ Should abortion be legalized? Pro-Con____________________________ ______
Ruling on abortion
should be examined
Abortion a matter of
freedom of choice
Abortion. The mere sound of the word
support the child.
It’s also easy for a man to be against evokes different reactions from people across
abortion, but it is not in his prerogative. It the United States and the world.
Last Sunday 300,000 pro-choice march­
takes two people to conceive a child; if that
child is unwanted by the woman it is not the ers marched through the streets of Wash­
man’s place to tell her she has to go ahead ington, D.C. and ended up staging a rally on
and deliver that child. I could never tell a the steps of the Supreme
woman that she cannot have an abortion. If Court They argued that
I was a pregnant woman I seriously doubt Roe vs. Wade should
that I would have an abortion, but since I not be over turned.
Roe vs. Wade is the
am a man and do not possess the proper
equipment I don’t have the right to make landmark court case that
Rick
legalized abortion and
the decision for those who do.
Piller
Fundamentally, the abortion issue is a solved the serious in­
question of individual rights. Does a woman fractions against hu­
have the right to decidewhat she will or will mankind that doctors who perform abor­
tions were committing before the case. Coat
not do with her own body? Yes.
Most religions have some concept of hanger abortions were stopped, but an
having to answer for the deeds of the pres­ increase in the amount of abortions re­
ent life in the afterlife. If this is the case, sulted. Each year in the U.S. there are
religious fanatics who desire for women to about 1 million abortions performed on
conform with their beliefs should spend women whose average age is 24 and are
less time trying to make those women single. About 4000 abortions are performed
conform. After all, if abortion is wrong in each day in the U.S.; this is l/60th of the
the eyes of their god, won’t women who worldwide amount. Today most abortions
abort their pregnancies eventually pay the in the U.S. are elective; they are not truly
price? It is awfully presumptuous of these necessary since the pregnancy is neither the
fanatics to take on the role of some sort of result of a rape nor dangerous to the health
of the mother.
watchdog of their god’s laws.
Elective abortions offer an unneces­
Reversal of Roe v. Wade would be a
serious blow to the personal freedom of sary health risk to the mother. This sort of
choice enjoyed by all. Opponents of abor­ an abortion, like all abortions, causes un­
tion are lucky we have such freedoms- due damage to the uterus of the woman on
without them they wouldn’t be allowed to whom the procedure is performed.
voice their opposition.
Today the debate between the “Pro­
Choice” group apd the “Anti-Abortion/
There are no easy answers to the ques­
tions raised by abortion. When exactly is a
fetus considered an independent human
life, thus making abortion tantamount to
murder? Is the termination of a condition
leading to another life morally or ethically
right? There is no
way anyone can
make such decisions
for someone else, so
the question really
is, “Does any person
Jim
have the right “to
Titus
decide what another
will do with her
body?” The answer to this is a resounding
NO.
We live in a country that guarantees
each one of its citizens the right to choose
where they want to live, what occupation
they want' to pursue, and even what god
they want to believe in. It is therefore wrong
for anyone to decide, based on their own
ethical, moral, and religious beliefs, what
another person can or cannot do.
Fervent religious believers are basi­
cally intolerant of the beliefs of others, if
such beliefs are contrary to their own. The
decision whether or not to abort an un­
wanted pregnancy is one a woman should
make for herself; those who are opposed to
abortion offer no solutions to the hard­
ships faced by such women should they
decide not to abort. It’s easy for a person to
tell a woman she should go ahead with a
pregnancy when that person won’t have to
PRO
CON
Veterans1 transition
needs to be reviewed
There is only one word to describe the
imminent switch of Veterans’ Specialist
Pat Fontaine and Information Specialist
Betty Reynolds: bad.
The idea of ensuring that a high level
of service to vets is maintained by training
more than one person to do the job is a
good one, but the haste of the whole affair
is illogical Why not wait until the summer,
when there are considerably less veterans
to deal with (and less possibility of prob­
lems arising)? And why, above all, not keep
the veterans that attend this school ap­
prised of situations that concern them and
their economic livelihood?
The fact is that most vets receiving
tuition assistance from the government are
given considerably more money than the
$230 per term it takes to attend Clackamas.
The remainder of this money is used for
things such as textbooks, food, rent, and car
payments. If problems arise that delay as­
sistance checks (and they inevitably will-
the job of veterans’ specialist is inherently
difficult due to the huge amount of paper­
work involved), vets could be faced with
financial problems that are unnecessary.
The last thing a full-time college student
needs to worryabout is a packofbill collec­
tors threatening to repossess his means of
getting to school.
There are many questions concerning
the changeover that Director of Counsel­
ing Lee Turpin has not answered to the
satisfaction of affected veterans. Why the
rush? Why not train more people to do the
Pro-Life” group is heating up. I feel, maybe
unduly, that the law that worked so hard
and is working so hard to protect the rights
of women everywhere has created a climate
where the woman is left out in the cold.
Both groups use the women as pawns in a
great game to control each other. The ‘Tro-
Life” group uses forms of terrorism to scare
women from the clinics where the abor­
tions are performed. Society has ingrained
into the minds of young people today that
if a girl gets pregnant her life from that
point on will be terrible, and the only solu­
tion would be to choose to abort the baby.
When was the choice made though?
Was it not in fact made when the couple
decided to engage in sexual intercourse? If
the man is not mature enough to use a
condom then it is up to the woman to
protect herself from the unwanted preg­
nancy. There is not a one hundred percent
sure way of protecting oneself from a preg­
nancy, but abortion should not be used as a
form of retroactive birth control.
I expressed my views here because I
feel very strongly about this issue. I was
adopted, and I feel that maybe if my bio­
logical mother had thought about abortion
I wouldn’t be here writing these words for
all of you to read. Since I am a man some
feel that Ishouldn’t comment on this issue,
since it is a “women’s issue.” I think that it
would be much worse for my comment to
go unheard, because in this great country
that we live any uninformed choice is a bad
choice.
Editorial Policy
job (so the college won’t get “caught short”
if Fontaine leaves, which is Turpin’s ra­
tionale for the change) but leave Fontaine
in her current position? And what happens
when Fontaine’s replacement, Betty Rey­
nolds, retires in December? The whole
process of training a new veterans’ special­
ist will have to be repeated after Reynolds’
retirement.
The whole affair smacks of political
infighting and petty personal differences.
What Turpin needs to remember is that he
is in a service-oriented position, and he
should not let his personal differences in­
trude on an important service to a segment
of the college’s student body.
The military veterans of Clackamas
Community College need to be involved in
decisions that directly affect them. The
reorganization of the Veterans’ Office should
be postponed and a review conducted that
involves all concerned. Perhaps if there
was a veterans representative position cre­
ated as part of the Associated Student
Government and elected by the veterans
themselves such situations would not oc­
cur. Veterans need a voice on this campus
that is sympathetic to their needs and
knowledgeable of their unique situations.
Clackamas Community College is not
part of the military, and veterans attending
the college should not be subject to the
same dictatorial controls they experienced
in government service. Military veterans
gave loyal, sincere service to their country
and should expect no less in return.
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material. Letters to the Editor must be turned in Friday in order to be printed
in the following Wednesday’s edition.
~
The Clackamas Print
The Clackamas Print aims to be a
fair and impartial newspaper
covering the college community.
Opinions expressed in The Clacka­
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stration, faculty or Associated
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nesday except for finals week.
Clackamas Community College,
19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Ore­
gon City, Oregon 97045. Office:
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inches
1
39.12
13.24
15.07
2
65.43
18.11
18.72
3
49.87
-4.34
-22.29
4
44.26
-13.80
22.85
5
55.56
9.82
-24.49
D50 Illuminant, 2 degree observer
6
70.82
-33.43
-0.35
7
63.51
34.26
59.60
8
39.92
11.81
-46.07
9
52.24
48.55
18.51
10
97.06
-0.40
1.13
11(A)
92.02
-0.60
0.23
12
87.34
-0.75
0.21
13
82.14
-1.06
0.43
14
72.06
-1.19
0.28
15
62.15
-1.07
0.19