THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.90
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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FRIDAY,FEBRUARY7,1992
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Anti-abortion activists rally in opposition to bill
Proposed bill would protect abortions, clinics in Kansas
By Gayle Osterberg Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA—Opponents of a bill that would keep abortion legal in Kansas if Roe vs. Wade is overturned expressed their disapproval yesterday at the Statehouse.
In the second day of House committee hearings, religious leaders, doctors and representatives of anti-abortion groups, people scheduled to speak yesterday.
Speakers attacked every section of the bill, saying it used vague terminology and offered more protection for women who performed abortions than for women.
"The most frightening specter of this bill is that it encourages a careless and self-serving style of medical practice that potentially causes grave harm to women in crisis," said Paul Davis, a physician. "Once doctors have a license to kill, they have a duty to kill."
Pat Adair, who said she had counseled women outside health clinics that performed abortions, called the bill the "abortion clinic protection act."
She spoke about a section of the bill that would require any woman under age16 to be counselled before having an abortion. The counseling could be done by anyone licensed to practice medicine, psychology or nursing, or anyone licensed as a social worker or professional pregnancy counselor.
"The counseling addressed in this bill is a deceptive and most assuredly mislabelled." Adair said. "Isn't that the fox to guard the chicken house?"
In addition to the section concerning minors, the bill would make abortion legal in all cases in which the fetus reaches a stage where it can survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical measure.
A late-term abortion also would be legal if the woman's life or health were threatened or if the fetus was affected by serious deformity or abnormality.
Mary Kay Culp, a representative of Kansasans for Life, said that the term "health" was defined broadly by Roe vs. Wade and that unless the definition in the Kansas bill was more specific, the definition could include a woman's physical or emotional health.
No woman seeking a late-term abortion would be turned down under the bill. Culp said.
Michael Peil, a physician from Wichita, questioned who would decide when a fetus was viable, meaning it could live outside the womb.
"The anticipated need for routine life-sustaining measures would make the unborn baby nonviable," Peil said. "The occasional need for routine surgical procedures to allow normal feeding would make the unborn baby nonviable."
Peil also questioned the standard by which a fetus would be determined to be human.
"This is a vague description," he said. "I would challenge you to get a consensus from the medical community as to what physical abnormalities as to qualify under this definition."
Opponents crowded into the hearing room, and overflow spectators clustered around a speaker set up outside the room.
Kathleen Sebelius, D-Topeka, head of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, said the committee would discuss the bill sometime next week and vote on whether to pass it to the House floor.
Father Regis Hickey, center, of Atchison, waits to voice opposition to the proposed abortion bill.
Speakers ask Senate committee to oppose qualified admissions
By Greg Farmer Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — Ladi Hernandez, edu-
TOPEKA-Ladia Hecation adviser to Governor. Joan Finney, told a Senate committee yesterday that the governor did not think qualification would solve the problems in the Yemen education
the Kansas educational system
Kansas
1992
Legislature
at1:30 p.m. Monday and is scheduled to vote at the conclusion of debate on whether to send the bill to the Senate floor.
"She feels, as I do, that qualified admissions is not the answer." Hernandez said. He indicated that such an admissions policy would punish those who do not qualify, rather than alleviate problems for such persons.
Hernandez was among qualified admissions opponents who spoke to the Senate Education Committee, which was hearing the second day of deliberations on a bill that would establish admissions standards at Board of Regents universities.
The bill would require students to earn a 2.0 grade point average in a college-bound curriculum in high school, score at least a 23 on the ACT or rank in the top one-third of their high school graduating classes.
Qualified admissions supporters,
including Chancellor Gene Budig,
and their families.
The committee will debate the bill
Hernandez said a process to improve education in Kansas needed to be introduced from a lower level.
"It doesn't make sense to make changes
at Regents universities and think
about Regents universities and think
said "We should start at the bottom."
Mark Tallman, coordinator of governmental relations for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said the proposed qualified admissions bill.
"We believe students should be given a chance at educational progress through admission to college, even if statistics indicate they will probably fail," Tallman said. "Some will succeed despite the odds."
Jennifer Hamlon, a student representative from Emporia State University, said she represented students at Emporia State who thought a student's worth could not be judged by a grade point average or a test score.
"Our students feel that everyone is
At the Statehouse
Here are some items currently being discussed.
Duke resolution
Rep. Gross introduced a resolution rejecting former Ku Klux Klanman David Duke's candidacy in the April 7 Kansas presidential preference primary. David filed for the primary Monday.
Presidential primary
The Senate, which voted Tuesday to repeal the Kansas presidential preference primary, passed the legislation on to the House of Representatives. The House and the governor must approve the bill for the April 7 primary to be canceled.
American-Indian gaming
Brian McAan, former attorney general of Nevada, told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee he thought the Kansas Supreme Court could rule on whether the governor or the legislature should enter into gambling compacts with American-Indian tribes. Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Finney and Kansas American-Indian tribes to force Timney to get legislative动于compacts
Washburn University
A bill establishing Washburn University as a state institution was introduced yesterday in the Senate. The bill would place Washburn under control of the Board of Regents, and the state, rather than Topeka residents, would finance the institution.
entitled to an education," Hamlon said. "Despite previous success or failure, all students have the potential to learn. Denying an individual the opportunity to utilize his or her potential is denying an inherent right."
Kay Coles, a representative of the Kansas National Education Association, said all students would not have
"Adding courses to enable each student to have the opportunity to enroll in all of the pre-college preparatory classes being recommended simply is beyond the financial capability of many school districts," she said.
the opportunity to fulfill the standards of the qualified admissions bill.
16 killed when plane hits motel in Indiana
The Associated Press
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A military transport plane practicing takeoffs and landings plunged into a motel and restaurant yesterday, killing 16 people, authorities and witnesses said. At least 19 were inured.
Burning fuel was sprayed hundreds of feet, sending flames 60 feet into the air and creating a tower of black smoke visible for miles.
"It looked like Pearl Harbor," said Mark Whitehead, who lives nearby and rushed to the scene.
The Lockheed C-130 four-engine turboprop plane crashed into the rear of a JoJo's restaurant and the north side of the Drury Inn motel shortly before 10 a.m. It had just taken off from Evansville Regional Airport, about a mile away, said Sgt J. R. Rhodes, Indiana state police.
Five of the dead were members of the Kentucky Air National Guard's 123rd Tactical Airlift Wing. They were on a pilot proficiency training mission, Guard representative David Altom said.
The cause of the crash was not yet known. A team from Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Ill., was investigating the crash.
Rick Woods, chief deputy coroner for Vanderburgh County, said that nine people died in the motel and two others were found dead in the restaurant. He said that no additional victims were expected to be found.
Guard representative Altam said the airplane was making touch-and-go
Knight-Ridder Tribune
landings, in which a plane touches down and takes off. immediately.
"They did two touch-and-gos. They asked permission for a low approach and were taking off when they fell into the hotel." Altom said.
Fredd Pratt of Bozeman, Mont., said he saw the plane drop.
Yesterday, at least five of the victims were treated at hospitals and released, and 14 people were admitted for burns and smoke inhalation.
University Council rejects resolution limiting abusive speech
By Jenny Martin
Kansan staff writer
After heated debate yesterday, University Council rejected a resolution that would have tried to limit the abuse of free speech on campus.
The resolution said that the University of Kansas supported the right of all groups and individuals to free speech except when that speech directly threatened someone with violence or property damage. The resolution also would forbid the use of language that has no moral or social value.
Maggie Childs, head of the committee, said the purpose of the resolution was to stimulate debate on campus about an important national issue.
The Human Relations Committee wrote the resolution, which SenExx
"Our proposal aimed to accomplish two things: to protect free speech as wide<sup>b</sup> as possible and to protect indi-
digenous from verbal harassment.<sup>c</sup> Childs said.
She said that the right to free speech was protected but that verbal 'stimulation and harassment of minorities on campus did not deserve the First Amendment protection.
Tim Miller, board member of the Douglas County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, asked the Council to reject the proposal because it inhibited free speech.
"The proposed policy could open up p
up a new office and should be rejec-
tion." Miller said.
"Although it was well intended, the real effect is going to be inhibited speech," Castro said. "It's bad for democracy and for education when you lose the ability to hear different ideas."
In other business, the Council passed a recommendation from the Human Relations Committee concerning educational programs for members of ROTC. It will be recommended to ROTC that students and faculty in the program attend workshops to address the problem of prejudice against gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Mike Castro, Plainfield, N.J., law student, spoke to the Council against his resolution.
KU is not alone in consideration of speech policy
"The Human Relations Committee believes that the Department of Defense will change its policy and that preparations for that eventuality should begin now." Childs said in a letter to SenEx.
By Svala Jonsdottir
Kansan staff writer
The University Council's rejection of a hate speech code for the University of Kansas focuses on a constitutional question that has generated controversy and court challenges at universities nationwide.
Increased racial tensions, the political correctness movement and greater awareness of minority issues have caused universities to consider and to implement codes restricting harassing speech. 11 issues are First Amendment protection.
At issue are First Amendment protections guaranteeing freedom of speech.
Stanford University has a free speech and harassment policy that prohibits harassing speech.
The Stanford code specifies that speech is not acceptable if it intertentally and directly insults
Jennifer Westerlind, associate university counsel at Stanford, said the policy was not passed quietly.
people on the basis of sex, race, color, handicap, religion, sexual orientation or national and ethnic origin.
No case has been tried under the policy, which never has been challenged, she said.
John Overdeck, co-president of the Association of Students of Stanford University, said that the association had urged the university to reconsider the policy but that students were divided on the issue.
"Personally, I don't exactly like the policy." Overdock said. "I don't know why a university
would need to make its own rules concerning this issue."
James Rhatigan, vice president for student affairs at Wichita State University, said regulations did not work to stop hate speech.
None in the Kansas Board of Regents schools have a speech code apart from the federally required harassment policies.
Scott Rutherford, member of the Human Relations Committee and ROTC student said, "It's not looking like ROTC is going to be kicked off campus, so we discussed how to improve the climate on campus with sensitivity training and some interaction."
Francis Heller, professor emeritus of law administration, said the KU resolution was built partially on the idea of "fighting words." He said the idea came from a Supreme Court ruling in the 1930s.
"Fighting words have no other purpose than to precipitate violence," Heller said. "If an expression has any kind of social, intellectual, political or aesthetic value, then it should be allowed."
Members questioned whether the review would look at non-instructional
The Council also discussed a draft document of the review of academic programs mandated by the Board of Regents.
and support programs as well as academic programs. Members also expressed concern that provisions were not made for the burden of time, effort and cost that the review would place on departments.
Del Brinkman, vice chancellor for
academic affairs, said the review was being revised every day to ease the burden on academic departments
Del Shankel, interim executive vice chancellor, said methods to review non-instructional programs were being discussed.