From: scotts@CS.CMU.EDU (Scott Safier)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Student Senate resolution wrt judicial bypass in PA
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:53:13 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Originator: scotts@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU


Last night, the Student Senate of Carnegie Mellon University approved
the following resolution with regards to Pennsylvania's parental
consent law (about to be argued before the Supreme Court).  The
resolution requests the Office of Student Affairs to provide
information regarding the law and the judicial bypass to any student
under the age of 18 that considers abortion.  The Dean of Student
Affairs was there and seemed agreeable to the resolution.

The sponsor on student senate wrote me: "The resolution passed the
Student Senate by a vote of 17-2-2 (I think; don't have my notes
here).  [The campuses resident Anti (a man, of course)] was there, and
we flushed a couple of antis on Senate, one a loser from [our graduate
school of public administration]. [The anti's] first angle was that it
was "political".  People basically said, "So information is political,
eh?"  [One senator] said, "Yeah, it's a little political, so what?"  It
was great.  For his second try, [the anti] got moralistic and huffy, and
promptly got point-of-ordered right off the stage.  The [public
administration] buffoon tried to get it amended to include a request
for counselling on adoption, and enough people pointed out that that
was completely irrelevant, because it was specifically about
information about this new law.  For some reason the guy never
actually moved the amendment, so in the end we weren't faced with
haggling over form or content, which in some ways was the greatest
danger.  So in the end I think everyone got a little bit educated, and
maybe we'll actually get the information in the packets..."

The resolution effects about 50 women on this campus.

Scott
(and as a staff member, I of course had nothing to do with writing or
 suggesting this resolution :-) )

              RESOLUTION REGARDING THE WELFARE OF FEMALE CARNEGIE
                     MELLON STUDENTS UNDER THE AGE OF 18.

                         Recommended by Campus Affairs
                                 14 April 1992

Whereas, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has passed a law requiring _informed
parental consent_ for a woman under the age of 18 to have an abortion; and,

Whereas, this law will apply to those female students at  Carnegie  Mellon  who
are under 18 years of age, in particular incoming freshman women; and

Whereas, _informed parental consent_ requires at least one parent to be present
in person to give consent, and therefore will require that  parents  travel  to
Pittsburgh  to  give  their  consent,  or  that  women  miss  school  to travel
out-of-state; and,

Whereas, the law provides for a _judicial bypass_, which allows a woman to
bypass _informed parental consent_ through appeal to a judge; and,

Whereas,  pending a decision by the United States Supreme Court, this law could
be implemented before the Fall 1992 semester; be it

Resolved,

That  Carnegie  Mellon  Student  Senate, to  promote  the   welfare  of  female
Carnegie  Mellon  students  under  the  age  of  18, hereby requests the Office
of Student Affairs to

   1. Provide all such students, in  particular  those  who  are  incoming
      freshman  women,  with  information  regarding  the  requirement for
      _informed parental consent_ and the  option  of _judicial bypass_ for
      obtaining a legal abortion, beginning in the Fall 1992 semester; and

   2. Establish  a  counselling  and/or  advocacy  program  for  all  such
      students who elect  to  seek _judicial bypass_ to  obtain  a  legal
      abortion in Pennsylvania.
Newsgroups: talk.abortion,talk.religion.misc