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University Daliv Kansan / Fridav. November 22. 1991
School of Medicine at Wichita could become protest target
By Melissa Rodgers Kansan staff writer
WICHIHT — The KU School of Medicine at Wichita soon may become the new target of Wichita's anti-abortion organizations.
Wichita Area Pro-Life Pastors' Advisory Council and Wichita Rescue Movement representatives announced yesterday that they would not boycott HCA Wesley Medical Center but instead may take action against the Wichita branch.
The group members also said at their 3 p.m. news conference that they wanted to meet with the hospital's administrators to determine who was responsible for allowing the Wesley Medical Center residents to perform abortions.
The council members said they would examine the roles Wichita branch administrators played in allowing Wesley residents to perform abortions.
Gene Carlson, head of the council, said the pastors wanted to reconsider their boycott threat to the hospital.
"It is not a propitious time to boycott. We want to find out where the responsibilities lie," he said.
Carlson said the Wichita branch might be the group's next target but would not describe tactics the group might use.
The Wichita Rescue Movement, headed by Bryan Brown.
went under the leadership of the council about two weeks ago. Brown said.
The council made the announcement after the head of the hospital's board, Nestor Weigand, announced at a 10 a.m. news conference that the hospital would not give in to anti-abortion demands and the council's boycott threat.
The hospital's executive board voted 19-0 yesterday to disregard the threatened boycott. The board said the medical center had no ethical right or legal authority to control residents' decisions to moonlight.
"The recent controversy centers on residents who are not employees of HCA Wesley Medical Center," Weigand said at the 10 a.m. news conference, reading from a prepared statement.
Instead, the residents are employees of the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education, which administers the Wichita branch's residency programs.
The Wichita anti-abortion organizations had threatened to boycott because four residents at the hospital perform abortions at
Brown said he thought the Wichita branch would be the next target.
"I suspect that is where the next arrow will be directed," he said.
Word of Life Church in Wichita, said the group was gathering ammunition and knowledge beforestriking.
Brown said that the Wichita Rescue Movement planned to demonstrate last night at the home of Daniel Roberts, head of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the Wichita branch.
Nancy Mannot, public relations director at the Wichita branch, said there never had been discussion of limiting a resident's moonlighting practices. However, medical competency was a consideration in moonlighting, she said.
Robert Ritola, pastor of the
Abortion procedures are not required curriculum, and none are performed at the Wichita branch. Mannot said.
Gordon Funk, public relations director at the hospital, said hospital officials would be willing to meet with the council but could not say whether the Wichita branch policies would be discussed.
"No meeting date or agenda has been set at this time. Consequently, it is hard to speculate what matters will be discussed," he said.
Funk said he was pleased the anti-abortion groups had decided against a bovcott.
The residents could not be reached yesterday for comment.
NEW YORK — With Congress' failure to lift a so-called abortion gag rule, Planned Parenthood officials around the country are facing up to the possibility they will have to close some clinics or begin charging the poor.
Associated Press Writer
"I am angry at our president for doing this," said Alexander Sanger, president of Planned Parenthood of New York City. "It is my feeling that a woman in the South Bronx has the same right to the medical information that President Bush's daughter does."
On Tuesday, the House failed to override Bush's veto of legislation that would have allowed federally funded clinics to discuss abortion with patients. Federal rules currently bar such counseling.
Family planning officials have said
they are facing millions in federal aid
rather than the taxes.
Sanger said Planned Parenthood's South Bronx clinic received about $500,000 a year from Washington and would have to start charging patients or cut services. The clinic is in a neighborhood where women have trouble paying for food, he said.
Sanger said a special fund drive that began in May after the Supreme Court upheld the counseling ban had raised $200,000.
Planned Parenthood's 172 affiliates receive $37 million in federal family-planning aid. Any chapters that refused to provide abortion counseling would be in violation of the organization's policies.
close if they are forced to choose between federal aid and abortion counseling, said Marsha Drapala, the chapter's executive director.
The clinics, in the small towns of Deming and Silver City, serve more than 1,900 women a year who otherwise will not have access to health care, she said.
Two clinics in poor, rural communities in southern New Mexico will probably
"I think what we are seeing is that people in southern New Mexico won't be able to get the same medical information as people who have money," Drapala said. "We feel that it is an unfair double standard that has been put on us in the rural parts of America."
A Planned Parenthood chapter in Ohio may have to close three of its eight clinics in the foothills of the Appalachians, said Dr. Dijk, the chapter's associate director.
Efforts to fight the ban on abortion counseling are not over, say Faye Wattleton, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Congress still has to pass an appropriation bill that would include clinic funding, and the Health and Human Services Department has not yet informed funding recipients of how and when it will implement the regulations, she said.
In Massachusetts, Gov. William Weld said he would try to find the needed $3.1 million if clinics insisting on offering counseling lost federal aid.
"We're going to have to come in and make up that federal government share." Weld said. "This issue has been to the Supreme Court; it's been to the president; it's been through Congress. There's no further relief that's going to be coming from Washington."
Re-count set after close vote on abortion law
The Associate Press
SEATTLE — A re-count next month will be required to decide whether voters have adopted the Roe vs. Wade rule. The state is also going to guarantee women abortion rights.
About 200,000 absentee, questioned and challenged ballots turned the tide for the abortion-rights initiative, which trailed by about 6,000 in the initial vote count after the polls closed. A survey found that one-fourth of 1 percent, according to results certified by counties Wednesday.
The count of 756,554 to 752,240 remains unofficial, however, until its certified by the state elections office, said director Gary McIntosh sons.
McIntosh said his office probably would certify results Dec. 5, a ad a recount, mandatory in any election decided by less than one-half of 1 percent of the total vote, probably will be completed about a week later.
"We're very pleased that it's finally nearing the end," said Ethel Herst, state executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League.
She admitted, however, that the outcome in the state, long viewed as a stronghold of abortion rights, was "closer than we would have liked."
The state had an unbroken string of strong votes in favor of abortion rights, starting with approval in 1970 and ending with the nation's most liberal statutes.
McIntosh said he doubted a re-count would change the results by more than a few hundred votes.
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