No wonder... :D

by Dawn Johnsen and Lynn Paltrow

The following article is from the Spring/Summer 1988 issue of CIVIL LIBERTIES, a newspaper published by the American Civil Liberties Union. It is presented for the purpose of editorial critique. The opinions of the authors are not necessarily those of this presenter.

BOYFRIENDS AND HUSBANDS USE COURTS TO BLOCK WOMEN'S ABORTIONS

By Dawn Johnsen and Lynn Paltrow, Staff Attorneys, "ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project"

During the last several months, the anti-abortion forces have implemented a new strategy in their systematic campaign to deprive women of their reproductive freedom. In cases in Indiana, Utah, and Pennsylvania, individual men, represented by anti-choice lawyers, have sought and obtained temporary restraining orders ("TROs") from state courts enjoining women from exercising their right to choose to have an abortion. Three cases were recently brought by men who claimed to be the women's "boyfriends" and two were brought by the women's husbands.

These cases, usually orchestrated by anti-choice activists, only arise where there is a problem in the marriage or the relationship. They frequently reflect not a concern for the woman or the baby that might be, but rather a hurt or spurned lover's desire to continue or control the relationship. Husbands and boyfriends, of course, have every right to express their views on pregnancy from the beginning of the relationship and to seek a different relationship if the couple's views on childbearing do not coincide. Partners who disagree about terminating a pregnancy should seek help from a professional counselor not a court order from a judge.

Thus far, these cases have been concentrated in Indiana, where courts have issued three TROs in the last two months. This strategy was devised by Indiana attorney James Bopp, Jr., who is general counsel to the National Right to Life Committee. Bopp has stated that his ultimate goal is to bring one of these cases to the U.S. Supreme Court as a device to have Roe vs. Wade, and the many subsequent cases recognizing a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, overturned. Bopp has made available at no cost, and is advertising nationwide, what he calls a "Father's Rights Litigation Kit." It contains all of the legal documents necessary to bring a case seeking to enjoin a woman from having an abortion. In addition to the Indiana cases, this litigation kit has already been used by a "boyfriend" to obtain a TRO against a pregnant woman in Philadelphia. Anti-choice lawyers have issued ominous warnings of more cases to come.

WITHOUT A HUSBAND'S CONSENT

Although the pregnant women in the five current (and any future) cases are almost certain to prevail in the end, these women have and will suffer devastating constitutional deprivations prior to their ultimate victory. Ordering a woman not to end an unwanted pregnancy directly conflicts with a long line of U.S. Supreme Court decisions recognizing the constitutional right of every individual to decide whether and when to have a child. The Court specifically held in 1976 that a woman has the right to have an abortion without her husband's consent. And every lower federal court to address the issue has ruled that requiring spousal consent or notification is unconstitutional; spousal consent laws are ultimately just a mechanism for harming pregnant women through delay and/or harassment.

The harms to pregnant women are clear from the experiences of the women in the first two Indiana cases. On April 4, 1988, a court in Vigo County, Indiana, issued a TRO prohibiting a young unmarried woman from obtaining an abortion. Clinics and physicians were also ordered not to perform an abortion on her. The woman, identified as Jane Doe, had no prior notice and no opportunity to oppose the court order which was requested by an man identified as John Smith, allegedly Jane's boyfriend.

Three days later, the court held a hearing to determine whether it would permanently order Jane not to have an abortion. The court permitted John to testify about the most intimate details of Jane's life, with the judge personally evaluating her sexual relationships, her use of birth control, and the degree to which Jane and her boyfriend allegedly loved each other. The court also permitted three other people to testify on John's behalf. Jane herself refused to be subjected to the embarrassment of testifying and being cross-examined, properly maintaining that her reasons for wanting an abortion were highly personal and the court was acting unlawfully in seeking to examine those reasons.

BOYFRIEND OF THREE MONTHS

The Vigo court ignored the Constitution and controlling Supreme Court precedent and issued a permanent injunction ordering Jane to bear a child. Forcing nine months of pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and unwanted motherhood on anyone is an awesome and intolerable burden. Moreover, Jane was only 18 years old, John claimed to have been her boyfriend for only three months, and his responsibility for the pregnancy was challenged.

Based solely on the testimony of John and his three witnesses, the court found that Jane's reasons (never articulated by her) for wanting an abortion were not good enough. The court trivialized the abortion decision by focusing on, for example, John's claim that Jane simply "wishes to look nice in a bathing suit this summer," ignoring the many obvious reasons such as age, length of relationship, life plans, and health which undoubtedly influenced Jane's decision to have an abortion. By the time of the court order, her abortion had been delayed at least five days and though abortion is safer than childbirth at all stages, each week of delay increases by 50 percent the physical risks to a woman's life and by 30 percent the risks to her health.

On April 13, Jane notified the Indiana Supreme Court that she had terminated her pregnancy despite the court order; like the millions of women who sought and obtained illegal abortions before Roe vs. Wade, Jane would not tolerate the unconstitutional invasion of her rights and the risks to her physical and emotional health that the court order imposed. The issue, however, is not over.

As briefs were being filed in Jane's case, yet another Indiana court issued a TRO ordering a woman not to have an abortion, again at the request of an alleged "boyfriend." Although the court ultimately dismissed the court order, properly finding that the woman had a clearly established constitutional right to make the decision to choose to have an abortion, the boyfriend immediately requested a further court order from the Indiana Court of Appeals, then from the Indiana Supreme Court, and then from two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, all of whom denied his request. This case, which took a total of sixteen days before the woman was no longer under a court order not to have an abortion, exemplifies the extreme tenacity of the opponents of reproductive freedom.

THE BURDEN OF PREGNANCY

The so-called right-to-lifers' attempts to justify their harassment of these women as a desire to simply balance legitimate rights of the men involved is unconvincing. There is not way to balance the burden of pregnancy; it is not possible for the woman to carry the fetus for four-and - a-half months and then give it to the man to carry for four- and-a-half months. As the Supreme Court has recognized, as long as the fetus is inside the woman's body, she must be the one to decide. Moreover, it is clear that Bopp and others taking these cases seek to prohibit ALL abortions whether the husbands and boyfriends agree or not.

Certainly every individual has the constitutional right to decide, free from government interference, whether or not to have a child. This right, however, clearly does not give a man the right to force a particular woman to have his child. To the contrary, the Constitution guarantees that the power of the government will not be used to compel anyone, male or female, to be an unwilling participant in procreation. If men can force women to continue pregnancies, then men could just as easily get court orders to force women to have abortions, and women could force men to produce sperm or undergo vasectomies.

The ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project is working with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union to represent the women in the first two Indiana cases. Bopp is representing the men. The ACLU also has alerted its affiliates to watch for further such attempts to deprive pregnant women of their constitutional rights and has distributed a model brief to help defeat this latest attack on the right of ALL people to reproductive freedom.

(Dawn Johnsen and Lynn Paltrow are staff attorneys for the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project.)

Labels: Law

A NASA scientist insists a 10th planet may be orbiting the sun even though two space probes have not been able to find any trace of it in the dim outer reaches of the solar system.

Dr. John Anderson, a celestial mechanics investigator with NASA's Pioneer spacecraft project, told reporters at Ames Research Center at Moffett Field Tuesday that if the planet exists, it travels at nearly right angles to the plane of the orbits of the nine known planets in a looping ellipse so elongated it only nears the sun every 700 to 1,000 years.

Anderson, who published his ideas last year in ''The Galaxy and the Solar System,'' called his theory ''an important contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of the outer solar system.''

Analysis of the trajectories of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft during the past five years shows no indication of gravitational effects that would be expected if an unknown planet was in a normal, circular orbit beyond Uranus and But 19th century records indicate the orbits of the outer planets were disturbed in a subtle manner, which Anderson suspects may have been caused by gravitational effects associated with the undiscovered planet.

''The best explanation for an object very likely to have been there for at least 100 years, and then disappearing, is a planet on a greatly elongated orbit,'' Anderson said.

''I think that's the most likely possibility if you take all the current data. It's a good possibility and a good working hypothesis. If it isn't Planet X, then I throw up my hands and can't say what it is,'' Anderson said.

Labels: Technology

101 EASY WAYS TO SAY NO
I'd love to, but...
1 I have to floss my cat.
2 I've dedicated my life to linguini.
3 I want to spend more time with my blender.
4 the President said he might drop in.
5 the man on television told me to say tuned.
6 I've been scheduled for a karma transplant.
7 I'm staying home to work on my cottage cheese sculpture.
8 it's my parakeet's bowling night.
9 it wouldn't be fair to the other Beautiful People.
10 I'm building a pig from a kit.
11 I did my own thing and now I've got to undo it.
12 I'm enrolled in aerobic scream therapy.
13 there's a disturbance in the Force.
14 I'm doing door-to-door collecting for static cling.
15 I have to go to the post office to see if I'm still wanted.
16 I'm teaching my ferret to yodel.
17 I have to check the freshness dates on my dairy products.
18 I'm going through cherry cheesecake withdrawl.
19 I'm planning to go downtown to try on gloves.
20 my crayons all melted together.
21 I'm trying to see how long I can go without saying yes.
22 I'm in training to be a household pest.
23 I'm getting my overalls overhauled.
24 my patent is pending.
25 I'm attending the opening of my garage door.
26 I'm sandblasting my oven.
27 I'm worried about my vertical hold.
28 I'm going down to the bakery to watch the buns rise.
29 I'm being deported.
30 the grunion are running.
31 I'll be looking for a parking space.
32 my Millard Filmore Fan Club meets then.
33 the monsters haven't turned blue yet, and I have to eat more dots.
34 I'm taking punk totem pole carving.
35 I have to fluff my shower cap.
36 I'm converting my calendar watch from Julian to Gregorian.
37 I've come down with a really horrible case of something or other.
38 I made an appointment with a cuticle specialist.
39 my plot to take over the world is thickening.
40 I have to fulfill my potential.
41 I don't want to leave my comfort zone.
42 it's too close to the turn of the century.
43 I have some real hard words to look up in the dictionary.
44 my subconscious says no.
45 I'm giving nuisance lessons at a convenience store.
46 I left my body in my other clothes.
47 the last time I went, I never came back.
48 I've got a Friends of Rutabaga meeting.
49 I have to answer all of my "occupant" letters.
50 none of my socks match.
51 I have to be on the next train to Bermuda.
52 I'm having all my plants neutered.
53 people are blaming me for the Spanish-American War.
54 I changed the lock on my door and now I can't get out.
55 I'm making a home movie called "The Thing That Grew in My
Refrigerator."
56 I'm attending a perfume convention as guest sniffer.
57 my yucca plant is feeling yucky.
58 I'm touring China with a wok band.
59 my chocolate-appreciation class meets that night.
60 I never go out on days that end in "Y."
61 my mother would never let me hear the end of it.
62 I'm running off to Yugoslavia with a foreign-exchange student named
Basil Metabolism.
63 I just picked up a book called "Glue in Many Lands" and I can't put
it down.
64 I'm too old/young for that stuff.
65 I have to wash/condition/perm/curl/tease/torment my hair.
66 I have too much guilt.
67 there are important world issues that need worrying about.
68 I have to draw "Cubby" for an art scholarship.
69 I'm uncomfortable when I'm alone or with others.
70 I promised to help a friend fold road maps.
71 I feel a song coming on.
72 I'm trying to be less popular.
73 my bathroom tiles need grouting.
74 I have to bleach my hare.
75 I'm waiting to see if I'm already a winner.
76 I'm writing a love letter to Richard Simmons.
77 you know how we psychos are.
78 my favorite commercial is on TV.
79 I have to study for a blood test.
80 I'm going to be old someday.
81 I've been traded to Cincinnati.
82 I'm observing National Apathy Week.
83 I have to rotate my crops.
84 my uncle escaped again.
85 I'm up to my elbows in waxy buildup.
86 I have to knit some dust bunnies for a charity bazaar.
87 I'm having my baby shoes bronzed.
88 I have to go to court for kitty littering.
89 I'm going to count the bristles in my toothbrush.
90 I have to thaw some karate chops for dinner.
91 having fun gives me prickly heat.
92 I'm going to the Missing Persons Bureau to see if anyone is looking
for me.
93 I have to jog my memory.
94 my palm reader advised against it.
95 my Dress For Obscurity class meets then.
96 I have to stay home and see if I snore.
97 I prefer to remain an enigma.
98 I think you want the OTHER [your name] .
99 I have to sit up with a sick ant.
100 I'm trying to cut down.
101 ... well, maybe.

Labels: Genius

All you need to start is a typewriter, paper and telephone business. It is not uncommon for a professional finder to earn more than $ 100000 per year. A Seeker earned $ 75000 per month for 5 years. He saw an item in a newsletter that provides 10000 barrels of crude per day for 5 years. Putting seller, which together with a purchaser in a small refinery, has earned a share of only 25? At barrel, and raised its share of $ 75000 per month for 5 years.

How about trading less than $ 1 shipping and in a couple of hours easy job for $ 100. It is not a big fee, but it was so easy to another finder could not pass it up. The reading of a "collectors' magazine, he came across an ad looking for some college memorabilia from a college near his home. He made a number of local calls, find the wanted elements, wrote a letter, and earned an easy $ 100.

A seeker is nothing more than a "matchmaker" for a fee. The Qualified finder simply matches buyers with sellers qualified for a fee. A seeker is not a pre-seller, dealer, agent or representative. Jim Straw, a publisher known nationally and entrepreneur who was a professional finder over 30 years, wrote the only Corsican be in a professional finder. Order Finder's Fees - The easiest You'll Ever Make Money to $ 100 paid by publishers, Phlander Company, 70197 Dept., PO Box 5385, Cleveland TN 37320. It seems expensive, but as a consultation and print with a man who made millions as a finder is a very convenient way to learn from its mistakes.

If a product or service can be bought or sold, there is a potential finder's fee just waiting for a finder with the know-how to win. There are finder fees to be earned in every small town or big city, in every state and the country. All you have to do is match-buyers and sellers, put them together, sit back and collect fees. And you can start your business finder's fee for less than it would cost for a good meal in a restaurant. All you really need is a typewriter, business card, and a phone to get started.

Labels: Money