Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, March 10, 1999
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The death of former Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, best known as the author of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, has evoked reactions from those who were affected by the case.
By Chris Hopkins
chopkins@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Justice's legacy being discussed
Chris Drahozel, associate professor of law, said Blackmun's decision was not just about abortion.
Blackmun's death stirs talk
"Blackman was trying to offer an interpretation of a lot of things going on in the early '70s," he said.
Drahoal said Blackmun was more of a figure in debate of the Constitution than in the Supreme Court.
Blackman's argument in Roe vs. Wade was that the right to privacy was guaranteed by the Constitution. Because the right to privacy wasn't explicitly set out in the Constitution, it was common for law professors to say it was a personal decision, Drahozal said.
"Blackmun made some bold and brave and intelligent additions to the constitutional discourse from a personal rights perspective," he said.
Sally Puleo, president of the University of Kansas Pro-Choice Coalition, said she was impressed by the strength of Blackmun's beliefs.
"He always stood by his view on Roe vs. Wade even though he got death threats, and there were protesters everywhere, and he was called all sorts of names," she said. "He never wavered."
Others affected by Roe vs. Wade,
however, said Blackmight might have
changed his mind about the decision in his final days.
Karen Mitchell, president of Black Americans for life, said she had heard that in the days before his death, Blackmun said he regretted his decision in Roe vs. Wade.
www.nwu.edu/summernu/
Mitchell said while she wasn't happy he died, it didn't change the strength of her opposition.
"I'm against what he did and his life's work," she said.
Abortion rights advocates were more supportive of Blackmun's decisions as a Supreme Court justice.
Jennell Clark, Vice President of Marketing at Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said her organization was saddened by the loss of Blackmun. Planned Parenthood won a 1992 Supreme Court case in a decision by a decidedly conservative court.
Edited by Keith Burner
Planned Parenthood link to racism debated
By Chris Hopkins
Karen Mitchell presented a speech Thursday at the University of Kansas in which she claimed Planned Parenthood was discriminatory.
By Chris Hopkins
chopkins@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"The abortion industry has targeted the African-American community," she said.
Mitchell is the president of Kansas City organization Black Americans for Life.
Mitchell said that Planned Parenthood was racist because Margaret Sanger, founder of the organization and early birth control activist, was a euginist. Eugenists believe in the selective breeding of humans.
The debate is not a new one. A page on the Planned Parenthood Web site defending Sanger has been on the Internet for three years and was adapted from a text written in 1994.
Mitchell also said that Sanger spoke several times with Adolf Hitler, although Carl Strikwerda, professor of history and teacher of Hitler and Nazi Germany, hadn't heard of that.
Emily Vieira, Marysville sophore and KU Students for Life
"To the best of my knowledge, there was no connection between Hitler and Sanger." he said.
member, said that Hitler's Mein Kampf echoed Margaret Sanger's The Pivot of Civilization.
Strikwerda said that it was stretching things to say that the German eugenics movement and the American eugenics movement were that closely connected.
"They basically had their own motivations," he said. "The Germans were interested in American eugenics, but if there hadn't been American eugenics, the Germans would have pushed forward anyway."
Mitchell said that the basis for her claims of Sanger's racism were a few letters and The Pivot of Civilization.
Vieyra said that some of the things written in that book were blatantly racist
"She was against people with hereditary taints' procreating at all," she said.
Mitchell also said that Planned Parenthoods were and always had been placed predominantly in minority neighborhoods.
Jennell Clark, vice president of marketing for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said that this was a misinterpretation of Sanger's intentions.
"Sanger began her grassroots efforts primarily in the ethnic communities because she was convinced that uncontrolled pregnancies presented a greater burden to ethnic groups who represented the poorer populations of that era." Clark said in a prepared statement.
Joey Sprague, faculty adviser to the KU Feminist's Union, didn't contend that Sanger made racist statements, but she said that Sanger made some comments because they would appeal to the white people who were so powerful at the time.
"Feminists at the turn of the century made claims that Feminists would never make now," she said.
would never make now," she said.
Mitchell said that because of Planned Parenthood's current activities, she found it hard to believe that they had moved away from Sanger's beliefs.
"All the goals that she's stated are the things that they have done and are doing," Mitchell said.
Until Planned Parenthood stands up and disavows everything that Margaret Sanger was, they still will be a racist organization. Mitchell said.
"From my point of view, they're not going to do that," Mitchell said. Sprague said that despite her beliefs, Sanger did more good than harm.
"She was wrong about a lot of things, but what she created was something people needed," she said.
Edited by Melody Ard
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