Abortion doors open
Gov. Ronald Reagan of California signed a bill last week making California the third state this year to liberalize its abortion law. Leading the pack was neighboring Colorado and second was North Carolina.
The California bill was similar to abortion bills enacted in the other two states, but it is probably less liberal than the others. It does not permit abortions in cases where the child is in danger of being born with a grave physical or mental deformity.
All three acts legalize abortions when bearing the child would endanger the physical or mental health of the mother, in cases of statutory rape, and when pregnancy resulted from forcible rape or incest regardless of the mother's age.
These laws are a step—a big step—in the right direction. Before the present session of state legislatures the only legal abortions in the United States were those in a situation where the mother's life was endangered.
In recent years, there has been much talk about illegal abortions. The estimates have ranged as high as a million a year in the United States, under every conceivable circumstances. One recent visitor on the Joe Pyne show claimed he had committed over 40,000 in his life, without losing a patient.
He admitted that over half the women he operated on were married, had children, and felt they wanted no more. Yet, in this instance, there was little mention of the mental anguish the mother has gone through since she was aborted.
But more alarming are the dirty holes where some unwed mothers go for abortion. If the young girl is lucky, the abortioner may be a licensed physician. The operation is painful, and too many times fatal-an operation in today's society which could be done under modern conditions with the same success as an appendectomy.
With these three states liberalizing their abortion laws, it gives way to the three main arguments for abortion. Under these three circumstances abortion should be performed. Any other acts of abortion are clearly still illegal and will only be turned to by the desperate, which are too great in number. But these types of abortions, like narcotics, will never be completely eradicated.
But these three states have opened the door to certain abortions which should have been opened years ago. It is interesting to note the geographical location of these three—one western, one midwestern, and one southern. The only group not represented is the supposedly liberal east.
As legislative sessions get underway next year, these three statutes should be studied and copied. They are not hasty things. In Colorado a board of three doctors must rule on every application for abortion, and their decision must be unanimous.
Next year Kansas will meet in its first consecutive session. It too, would be wise to take time to look at what neighboring Colorado has done.
Congress and the reserves
Wishes recently expressed by Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, to reorganize the Army Reserve and National Guard with an eye toward reducing the number of divisions have been met by the usual shouts of alarm in Congress. The reserves are a sacred cow, and Congress doesn't like anyone, much less Bob McNamara, tampering with them. Our legislators protest than in these perilous times it would be ridiculous to reduce our military Reserves.
Yet, for some time now a large part of our Reserve force has revealed itself to be almost comically inefficient. President Kennedy activated Reserve units for the Berlin crisis early in his administration and the ensuing confusion was monumental. The Reserves proved to be something less than effectual. Almost nothing has been done to improve the efficiency of Ready Reserve outfits since then, and any activation of units would almost certainly see the 1961 debacle repeated.
If attending drills has little effect on improving the readiness of Reservists one might ask why a supposedly cost-conscious Congress is so intent on maintaining Reserve "strength." Could it be that politicians and their friends holding high rank in the Reserves do not wish to legislate their part-time jobs out of existence? During World War II President Roosevelt decreed that all Congressmen should stay in Washington, for they were more needed there than in the military. If the Reserves were activated this policy would almost certainly prevail again. Consequently, our Congressional "generals" would not go on duty with their units anyway. So why do we taxpayers pay out lavish salaries to Reserve Congressmen? Possibly for the same reason that we maintain the Reserves at all. - Ivan Goldman
b. s. (the editor)
This column survived the first week so here it is again anchored to the bottom of the editorial page again. Sunday the campus filled up with more than 2,000 high school kids from all parts of the country who want to join the college "in crowd." It used to be an easy thing to tell them to join the college group—"Just lock around the Hill and that is how you should act."
But now the problems start. If one looks at the summer school student this year, for many of the high schoolers it may be a regression instead of a progression.
The Chi Omega fountain got its first soap sudsing last Thursday. Any professional student could tell that those who did it lacked the training offered by many of the fraternities during the regular school session.
In reading the latest issue of Playboy, it was noticed Jim Ryun got a full page spread. Although he is not this editor's idea of the pin-up of the month, it should make Kansas proud to have him featured in such a magazine. Now the only thing left for Ryun to make is the cover of Time . . . or better yet a center fold-out.
The advisor for the Summer Session Kansan returns this week so this editor may have to straighten up. Blaine King has returned from
Summer School Director George B. Smith believes he is responsible for the rains which came last week. Each year Vice Chancellor Smith paints one side of his house. Sunday morning he had removed the shutters from the side he was going to paint . later in the day the three-inch deluge came.
playing soldier (with his favorite reserve unit) in the midst of the Southland and all those Southern Belles.
Lawn Mowers Beware: With the outlook of fair skies for the next few days, the grass has now dried up enough to mow. One University professor was heard to say at the end of last week, "Just let it rain, then when my wife asks me about the grass I can say, 'Too wet, too wet.'"
Tell Me Why Department: Why is it that when one has an appointment with University Deans they see you quite promptly, but certain University professors will let you cool your heels in their outer offices for hours?
That's about it for this week. For a while it was doubtful if this much worthless material could be gathered in one spot, but it was done. And Craig Grant just keeps muttering, "What is this garbage, what is this garbage, . . ."
NEW BOOKS
BEEN DOWN SO LONG IT LOOKS UP TO ME, by Richard Farina (Dell, 75 cents); LET NOON BE FAIR, by Willard Motley (Dell, 95 cents); DON'T MAKE WAVES, by Ira Wallach (Dell, 50 cents)—Let's face it, this is mainly trash. Because it deals with Our Mad Youth some will have to call it significant, but it's hard to find anything junkier than some of the stuff in, especially, the book by Farina with that marathon title. Willard Motley, unfortunately, never did write anything that was very good, and this one about sex and sin in sunny Mexico has little to redeem it. "Don't Make Waves" is a cut above the muscle beach movies of recent years, but just a cut. As a matter of fact it used to be called "Muscle Beach."
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A TASTE FOR VIOLENCE, BLOOD ON THE STARS,
FRAMED IN BLOOD, all by Brett Halliday (Dell, 45 cents each);
MARRIED PEOPLE, ALIBI FOR ISHBEL, both by Mary Roberts Rinechart (Dell, 60 cents each)—Light stuff for reading in front of the air conditioner. The Rinechart stories go back many years, and are collections of mystery and intrigue. The Brett Halliday books are about famous detective Mike Shayne. No plot shall be provided here.
THE FOREST AND THE FORT, by Hervey Allen (Dell, 95 cents)—The first of Hervey Allen's now-epic trilogy that he called "The City in the Dawn." Allen set out to tell the story of the eastern American frontier as viewed through the adventures of a youth bearing the awful tag of Salathiel Albine. Allen was encumbered by a heavy style and detail that became overpowering, but the total effect of this novel, and of its successors, was that of providing an authentic story of the frontier.
LAUREL BRITISH DRAMA: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, edited by Robert W. Corrigan (Dell, 95 cents); THE DEER PARK, by Norman Mailer (Dell, 95 cents)—Two new volumes for students of the drama. The Laurel volume contains some familiar plays—Dion Boucicault's "London Assurance," a comedy of manners; Leopold Lewis' "The Bells," a drama of murder; W. S. Gilbert's "Patience," one of the memorable comedies of the age; Arthur Wing Pinero's "The Second Mrs. Tanquieray," a social drama; Shaw's "Arms and the Man," a satire on love and military affairs, and Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," the always delightful comedy of Victorian folk. It is quite a move from these to Mailer's "The Deer Park," the biting drama that appeared off-Broadway only last season, an adaptation from Mailer's flop novel of sex and violence in southern California.
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THE DIRTY DOZEN, by E. M. Nathanson (Dell, 95 cents)—A big war novel published again in paperback to coincide with the movie about to appear this summer. Shocking and rough and crude, it's the story of 12 G.I.s, all prisoners, who anticipate either a life at hard labor or a death sentence. Instead they get one of those assignments particularly fitted for the movies or a television series—a parachute jump into Europe just before D-day.
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ASSIGNMENT IN BRITTANY, by Helen MacInnes (Dell, 60 cents); BLACK MAGIC: 13 CHILLING TALES, edited by Don Ward (Dell, 60 cents); KILLER'S WEDGE, by Ed McBain (Dell, 50 cents); BEFORE I DIE, by Helen McCloy (Dell, 60 cents); WIDOWS WEAR WEEDS, by A. A. Fair (Dell, 50 cents); BOUGHT WITH A GUN, by Luke Short (Dell, 45 cents)—Some light reading for the summer, ranging from a World War II spy tale that we were reading 20 years ago to a western thriller by one of the best. You'll find here a new adventure of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, an 87th precinct mystery, some horror stories, and a well-written murder mystery by Helen McCloy.
2 Summer Kansan editorial page Tuesday, June 20, 1967
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