STATE/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, January 25, 1994
5
Pro-choice supporters celebrate Court victory
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Abortion-rights activists celebrated a 21-yearFold Supreme Court decision and a new ruling the court handed down Monday as they presented small jingling bells and edible bells to lawmakers at the Kansas Capitol.
The abortion-rights activists had just heard about the new decision, which said that activists may use a federal racketeering law to sue protesters who block women's access to abortion clinics.
They distributed the bells as part of all-day celebration of the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that gave women the constitutional right to abortion.
More than 100 people listened to a lunchtime program sponsored by the Kansas Choice Alliance, a coalition of 45 groups that supports a woman's right to an abortion. Before and after the lunch, participants handed out bells to legislators.
"We want the bells to be a reminder of the continuing struggle to guarantee women access to reproductive choices," said Sue Ledbetter, a lobbyist for the National Organization for Women.
Ledbetter said the Court's latest ruling "kind of feels like the tides are turning."
Lower courts had thrown out a NOW lawsuit that invoked the anti-racketeering law against Operation Rescue and other groups. Monday's decision reinstated the lawsuit.
"This is a biggie," said Ellen Estes, president-elect of the Wichita League of Women Voters.
Anti-abortion activists were shocked at the decision. "I just can't believe they're putting Operation Rescue people in the same category as the mafia," said Cleta Renyer, a lobbyist for Kansas Right to Life. "It's just
unbelievable. I don't know how we're going to reverse this snowballing trend."
Renyer and other anti-abortion activists on Friday presented roses to lawmakers to mark both the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and the passage of a similar state law. The group rallied at the Statehouse on Saturday.
The ruling falls far short of resolving all the legal issues surrounding anti-abortion activities. Lawmakers who spoke to the group said some of those questions are bound to come before the legislature during the 1994 session.
One of those issues is state funding of abortions. "If we're going to make it legal, it's not much of a right if you can't afford it," said Rep. Jo Wagnon, D-Topeka, who is a candidate for governor.
The high court Friday agreed to clarify how far courts and local governments may go in restricting protesters by creating "buffer zones" outside abortion clinics.
"If you can't get into a clinic, that's not much of a right either." Wagnon said.
A Wichita lawyer who represents an abortion clinic was surprised at the high court's decision. John Cowles is involved in a case stemming from the summer of 1991 Operation Rescue protests in Wichita, during which there were about 2,700 arrests of approximately 1,700 people. The case is pending in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I thought it would be a difficult case to win in the Supreme Court because there have been several decisions that have discussed this economic motivation factor for RICO lawsuits," Cowles said.
The ruling threatens Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups with financial ruin since those successfully sued under the anti-racketeering law pay triple damages.
Regents say plan has 50-50 chance
The Associated Press
"This is by no means a done deal," said Washburn President Hugh Thompson.
TOPEKA — Gov. Joan Finney may want it, and some lawmakers may be open to the idea. But getting Washburn University into the Kansas Board of Regents system is far from a sure thing.
A bill that would make Washburn a state university has not been drawn up yet, and officials of both Washburn and the Regents say the plan has a 50-50 chance of passing.
Thompson and Stephen Jordan, executive director of the Regents, said legislators they have talked with are open to the proposal, which includes the new plan, Partnership for Excellence.
The three-year Partnership for Excellence plan would increase faculty salaries and budgets at the six Regents universities. For the 1994-95 year, the plan calls for a 3 percent increase in the six universities' base budgets, which would come from a 3 percent increase in state general fund financing and other funds, including $5.7 million in tuition increases.
Another $9.3 million in new tuition money would go toward faculty salaries. It is called a "partnership" because it calls for contributions from students, in the form of higher tuition, as well as from the state.
The Washbum proposal, as outlined by Finney, would make Washburn the seventh Regents university by July 1, 1997.
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