Organization: Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
Distribution: na
Date: Tuesday, 5 Jan 1993 06:55:52 EST
From: Linda Birmingham <ADMN8647@RyeVm.Ryerson.Ca>
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Re: Clarifying "Restrictions"
 <1993Jan4.224635.12058@crd.ge.com>

In article <1993Jan4.224635.12058@crd.ge.com> James G Keegan Jr says:
>ray@netcom.com (Ray Fischer) writes:

>|>I should like to point out that almost nobody seriously proposes that
>|>there should be no restrictions whatever on the process of getting an
>|>abortion.
>
>this statement is not correct.
>
>i know of no pro-choice organization seeking to restrict
>abortions.

"Support for total repeal of all abortion laws also came from
some unexpected sources. Lyndon Johnson had appointed a
Presidential Advisory Council on the Status of Women, with former
Senator Maurine Neuberger of Oregon as its chairwoman.  Its
report, released in 1968, called for the repeal of all abortion
laws." L. Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes

"NAC came out in support of abortion as the woman's right.  Women
might seek abortions after twenty weeks with the most compelling
reasons - a teenager afraid to tell, a meonpausal woman who had
not realized she was pregnant, a woman who has just discovered
that she is carrying a deformed child.  A time-limit on abortion
was thus seen as an arbitrary denial of these individual
circumstances". S. Rowbotham, The Past is Before Us

"The answer to later abortion is not further restrictions - the
answer is access early in the pregnancy.  Sex education and birth
control counselling not only reduce the need for abortion per se
but also reduce the number of later abortions.  Ready access to
an abortion facility eliminates delay.  And full insurance
coverage means that women must not spend time looking for money
to pay for the procedure.  Thus, people who oppose these measures
are, in fact, contributing to the incidence of later abortions"
CARAL (Canada), The Case Against Criminal Sanctions

"Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself,
free from government interference, whether or not to have an
abortion.  Today, more than ever, American families do not want
the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating
how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters.
That is why even though Americans may differ on what
circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent
with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question
of who should make this personal decision, the majority of
Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this
private choice for herself.  Anti-choice proposals to ban
abortions for sex-selection" or "birth control" are smokescreens
designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this
fundamental issue and trivialize the seriousness with which
millions of women make this highly personal decision.  Any
government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain
legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force
all women to publically justify their reasons for seeking an
abortion."
NARAL, Who Decides? A Reproductive Rights Issues Manual




Linda
--
Liberty in a free and democractic society does not require the
state to approve such decisions but it does require the state
to respect them....Justice B. Wilson, 1988