CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, March 8, 1993
5
William Alix / Special to the KANSAN
Fave Wattleton, former president of Planned Parenthood, speaks to a crowd of about 500 people. Wattleton discussed abortion rights Friday night at the Kansas Union Ball
Speaker addresses abortion-rights issue
Former president of Planned Parenthood encourages change
By Terrilyn McCormick Kansan staff writer
While Faye Wattleton, former Planned Parenthood president, addressed approximately 500 people Friday night about the reproductive rights of women, five antiabortion advocates occupied the front row in protest.
During a question-and-answer session after the speech, the anti-abortion advocates interrupted Wattleton's answers several times. The protesters also held up newspapers with pictures of aborted fetuses throughout the speech.
Wattleton, who had an armed bodyguard, by her request, said she felt at home in the Kansas Union Ballroom with the anti-abortion advocates present.
In her speech, Wattleton said women's rights had suffered severely during 12 years of Republican presidency.
But in a separate interview, Wattleton said it was the only time anti-abortion advocates had interrupted her at a speaking appearance.
"Much damage has been done, and it won't be undone with just one election," she said.
Wattleton said that women could empower themselves by picking an issue or problem and pursuing it. She compared this idea to President Bill Clinton's election.
"Change came about because we were enraged with the usual business of the old
boy's club, "she said "So women did something about it. You need to understand that it does not take a cast of thousands to make change."
Wattleton said the courts and Congress had attempted to chip away at the Roe vs. Wade decision. These attempts include approving laws that restrict abortion by placing a gag order on doctors in state-financed clinics, preventing them from discussing abortion, she said.
These decisions infringe upon other rights, not just abortion rights, she said.
"We need to look at the bigger picture," she said. "Now these decisions envelop the right of free speech."
After her speech, Wattleton answered questions from the audience. Half of the time she defended her work at Planned Parenthood and discussed the medical and psychological effects of abortion on women and medical testing using fetal tissue.
Margaret Hu, president of KU National Organization for Women, said she was pleased with Wattleton's speech but disturbed by the methods of the anti-abortion advocates.
"They have a right to their opinion," she said. "But to deliberately try to disrupt by interrupting Ms. Wattleton was inappropriate, and it infringed upon her right to speak."
Tonya Barker, Lawrence senior and member of KU Students for Life, said that the organization was present because most people were not hearing the whole story.
"Many of them have never looked at what abortion looks like," she said. "How can they make up their minds without receiving all the information?"
Landmark KU journalism grad receives honors
Marie Ross has received more than a degree from KU'S School of Journalism.
By Tiffany Lasha Hurt
Special to the Kansan
Ross, the first African American to graduate from the University with a journalism degree, was named an honorary trustee of the William Allen White Foundation. The University foundation consists of more than 150 journalist trustees who knew White or are interested in prolonging his memory.
Mike Kautsch, dean of journalism, presented Ross with an honorary certificate at a tribute to her Saturday at the Bryant Community Center in Kansas City, Kan.
About 100 family, friends, public officials, community leaders and staff members of The Kansas City Call attended the tribute. The Call is an African-American-owned weekly newspaper in Kansas City, Mo. Because of her declining health, Ross is on leave from her position as editor and manager of the newspaper's Kansas City, Kan., office.
Ross, who is in her mid-80s, also was honored Saturday because of her achievements as an African-American journalist and the obstacles she crossed to get there.
a native of Kansas City, Kan., Ross enrolled at the University in 1925. She said she did not face any resistance as an African American at the University until she started taking journalism classes. One day, a faculty member snotted her in a class.
"He said, I see we've got a darky in the class," Ross recalled.
"He asked me, 'What are you doing here?' I told him I was here to learn just like everyone else. I wasn't leaving."
Her desire to write and the lack of positive African-American coverage in newspapers prompted Ross to become a journalist, she said.
Ross said she never wrote for The University Daily Kansan because it did not cover issues that interested African Americans.
"None of the white papers wrote about what Black people did," she said. "They didn't think that was important."
Instead of writing for the Kansan, Ross wrote the KU column for *The Call* for her last three years in college.
She recalled the day a faculty member told her she was wasting her time studying journalism because no one would hire her. But he was surprised when she showed him some of her columns.
Ross said despite the obstacles she faced in the school, she never was discouraged.
"You make up your mind, you don't get discouraged," she said. "If I open the door, you might close the door, but I'm going to be there."
Ross's determination to reopen closed doors paved the way for other aspiring African-American journalists at KU. Lucile Bluford, editor and publisher of The Call, was the second African American to graduate from the University with a journalism degree.
Bluford, who was a freshman while Ross was a senior, chose to work on the Kansan.
"I really enjoyed working on the paper while I was there," Bluford said. "Marie paved the way for me at KU. I didn't have any trouble with anybody."
Upon graduating from KU, Ross was a reporter for The Call for 12 years before she became the editor of the African-American-owned weekly newspaper The Iowa Bystander in Des Moines. After 18 years in Iowa, she returned to the Kansas City, Kan., office of The Call in 1959.
Bahamas spoke highly of Ross as a journeyman.
"For Miss Ross, writing was not simply an end in itself," he said. "Writing was a means to an end, and that end was, as she puts it, to write 'the truth about Black people.'"
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