FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008
NEWS
4A - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
1 = 5A
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2003
MENELY'S VIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Roe v. Wadesparks abortion debate
Give women choice, protect their rights
Men are pigs. Who are they to say what a woman can do with her body? Men
M are pigs. Who are they to say what a woman can do with her body? Men and women do awful things to their bodies every day: drinking into blackouts, chain smoking, soliciting promiscuous unadulterated sex with a random hottie. If they are fortunate, they won't have to live with the consequences. If they aren't, they should hope the Supreme Court won't intervene.
The Court decided 30 years ago in Roe v. Wade that essentially said every woman has the right to make choices concerning her own body, no matter how healthy or unhealthy those choices may be.
"Choice is the American way," the signs say. The Supreme Court was correct 30 years ago, and it's justified today.
GUEST COMMENTARY
Going by the 14th Amendment, which guarantees that no law can be made that abridges the rights of U.S. citizens, the Supreme Court made the right decision.
Jon Ralston opinion@kansan.com
It's disgusting that a woman can be told what to do with her own body. Hypocrisy is at work when a group of men — and not nearly enough women — sit atop the United States' judicial
system and dictate what choices a woman cannot make. That's what President Bush obviously wants, as heappointed pro-life advocate John Ashcroft as Attorney General.
It's wrong that so many men have so much power concerning a decision that involves primarily women. A man can't understand what it's like to have something removed from their own bodies. It's the same reasoning behind why it took way too long to give women the right to vote.
Abortion is a woman's decision to make—not a man's. To deny a woman the right to make that choice about her body is wrong.
Jon Kaiston is a sophomore in liberal arts and sciences.
Abortion kills children
For three decades, unborn babies have legally been vacuumed and poisoned to death by doctors.
In the debate over choice, consideration of what "choice" is at stake — the choice to kill a person — has been shuffled aside by abortion proponents.
When the nature of the unborn child is seen, abortion ceases to be a medical procedure and becomes apparent as murder.
One real-life story illustrates this.
In the 1960s, Dr. Bernard Nathanson was a leading abortion advocate. He conducted thousands of abortions — including one to destroy his own child. Over time, he became uncomfortable with what he was doing.
When ultrasound became available, Nathanson could see unborn children inside their mothers. He realized he had been killing real human beings.
One of Nathanson's friends, a veteran of a thousand abortions, ran ultrasound during an abortion. The resulting film showed the brutality of abortion with such devastating effect that his friend never performed another one.
Before the procedure, the baby struggled, trying to escape the deadly vacuum that had invaded its haven. It was alive and it wanted to continue to live.
Nathanson, who said, "I worked hard to make abortion legal, affordable, and available on demand," now argues passionately that abortion is wrong.
COMMENTARY
When we study pre-Civil War America, we shake our heads. How could Americans advocate slavery? How could Americans who "personally opposed" slavery allow others to continue it? Their apathy and moral cowardice revolt us.
Joe Pull
opinion@kansan.com
Many greeted the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade with celebration of choice. But "choice" is merely a disguise to hide the real issue: abortion kills a defenseless person.
Choosing to take an innocent life is often convenient, but that doesn't make it right. Abortion as a response to unwanted pregnancy is no more acceptable than is killing the jobless as a response to unemployment.
That an unborn child is still a person can be seen in his or her genetics, development and responsiveness — and in his or her tiny hands, whether inside or outside the womb.
Pull is a Collox, N.D., senior in history and political science.
PERSPECTIVE
Hummer H2: No thank-you; Everyone needs a Prius
While riding along in my Toyota Prius, a half-gas, half-electric hybrid car, I was nearly destroyed in the snow the other day by an out-of-control Ford Excursion SUV.
Subcompact versus supersized, my encounter seemed to embody a greater debate today in the news, one that is largely avoided by the public and politicians alike.
There are far too many SUVs, and far too few hybrids, cruising around the streets of Lawrence. Current attitudes of Americans, as well as current Bush policies, are only going to make the problem worse.
If there is one concept the American population has repeatedly failed to grasp, it has been "nonrenewable" resources. Whether that be coal (dead plants) or oil (dead animals), these resources regenerate every hundred million years or so.
Consumption is driven by demand, and if Americans keep devouring these resources, they will continue to disappear rapidly.
Add to this the current administration's callous encouragement of oil production and SUV purchasing, and you have what seems to be willing ignorance by all.
ignorance is accelerating both problems.
This dependence causes effects, both economic and environmental, and this
The International Energy Agency, an autonomous agency that coordinates and shares information among 26 nations including the U.S., Britain and France, estimated in 2002 that the world would be able to meet oil demand for only the next 25 years.
The Agency expects CO2 emissions to increase by 70 percent by the year 2030, with nearly all of the increase coming from auto emissions. That's thanks to China, India and a number of other developing countries that are realizing their full economic potential, which will result in an explosion of demand for vehicles and oil around the world.
All of this comes at a time when winter in Kansas comes two months late with days of 70-degree weather in January. Global warming is a solid theory, and Americans are a willing part of the problem.
Barring some revolutionary shift in technology, consciousness or both, these numbers will only get worse.
The New York Times ran a story Monday illustrating part of the new Bush economic stimulus plan. Bush has proposed that small-business owners of any kind doctors, accountants, salon owners — could deduct nearly the entire price of the
COMMENTARY
Cooper Wood opinion@kansan.com
Sports and the media glorify these high-end SUVs; and stars seem willing to look past the Hummer H2's abysmally low fuel efficiency of about 10 miles per gallon.
largest SUVs made as part of a business expense, leaving it up to the taxpayers to cover the difference.
Having the government pay for 75 percent of people's Hummers, a figure straight from The New York Times, isn't going to help the economy or discourage other Americans from buying these gasguzzling, Shoddy, Useless Vehicles.
With Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil supplier, in economic turmoil and producing no oil, and a war in Iraq a seeming inevitability, even the current oil supply relies on a precarious foundation.
All this comes at a time when the United States' dependence on foreign oil is more foolish and dangerous than ever.
Whether the war in Iraq is only about oil, it is certainly a curious benefit to a new regime in Baghdad. Dependence on oil from the Middle East and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is a greater threat to national security, and unquestionably a greater threat to the current domestic economy, than any threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
With oil magnates dominating politics and the news, whether they are vice presidents or terrorists, a tax policy and administration moving toward more dependency on these nonrenewable resources only moves the world closer to exhausting its resources.
Economic stimulus needs to go to those auto makers creating alternative fuels and vehicles, instead of rewarding the consumers and producers of the worst polluters.
Decreasing oil dependence also will increase domestic self-sufficiency, as well as curtail the funding of a number of terrorist organizations.
In a nation dominated by fears of terrorism and instability, current policymaking only worsens the problem, funding the source of instability and exposing America's greatest vulnerability.
Wood is a Topeka sophomore in sociology.
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this is a message to my roommate. Could you go ahead and pick up all your dishes and put them in the dishwasher and take out all the trash that you make? Yeah, that'd be great.
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Hi, I would like to just say that I don't care if the buses can run and K-10 is not closed. If this blind girl can't make it up the sidewalk with her guide dog, school should be canceled.
Mother Nature is a whore. Lawrence was nice over the entire break, and now that school has started back up, she's unleashing her fury.
I don't understand why everyone from Kansas starts freaking out and running around like chickens with their heads cut off when there's 3 inches of snow on the ground.
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This is about the war in Iraq. I think we need to drop tuition, not bombs. Oh, and Mizzou sucks.
My name is Lorenzo and my New Year's resolution is to get rid of my pepperoni nipples.
冒
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My dad once told me that we have dumber leaders and smarter bombs, and I think that's true.
Did you guys see that protestor protesting the protestors? What a stud.
The snow makes my nipples hard.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION
Thank God for science. Science has made wonderful progress in discovering the secrets of DNA.
Our DNA is like a computer program. Once the disk is installed, the program is complete. Once conception takes place, we as human beings are complete. Nothing else is added to each individual from conception onward except food, water and oxygen. Science has proven beyond dispute that human life starts at conception. We are not potential human beings in our mother's womb; we are human beings with potential.
It has been 30 years since the Supreme Court "legalized" abortion. With each passing year, science continues to discover the humanity of the child in the womb. Science is on a collision course with the Supreme Court decision.
This is also obvious in the neonatal units of the hospital. Little tiny babies are surviving and are receiving better care every day, at the same time that abortion continues to destroy babies the same age. It is unbelievable the continued hypocrisy of our society.
Thirty years ago there were only a few organizations and agencies that would help a pregnant woman. Today, there are over 50 of these groups across the state of Kansas, each one offering help, counseling, and assistance (free of charge) to any woman troubled with an untimely pregnancy.
There are alternatives to abortion-wonderful, life-affirming alternatives.
I should also add that there is considerable help for women who are suffering from an abortion experience. With over 300,000 abortions performed in Kansas since 1973, there are thousands of women suffering silently with their abortion. Help with complete confidentiality is available to them. Today, women are helping women who have been victimized by abortion.
David Gittrich, Kansas City, Kan.