KATU 2 - Portland, Oregon
ATLANTA - More American women are having babies they didn't want, a survey indicates, but federal researchers say they don't know if that means attitudes about abortion are changing.
U.S. women of childbearing age who were surveyed in 2002 revealed that 14 percent of their recent births were unwanted at the time of conception, federal researchers said Monday. In a similar 1995 survey, only 9 percent were unwanted at the time of conception.
At least one anti-abortion group said the numbers reflect a national "pro-life shift," while others who research reproductive health issues suggested it might mean less access to abortion.
The latest findings are consistent with the falling rate of abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based nonprofit group that researches reproductive health issues.
In 1995, for every 100 births that ended in abortion or a birth, almost 26 ended in abortion. In 2002, 24 ended in abortion, according to Guttmacher data. That information seems to be in sync with the federal data released Monday, said Lawrence Finer, Guttmacher's associate director for domestic research.
"The two statistics together suggest - but don't confirm - that a greater percentage of unintended pregnancies resulted in births rather than abortions," Finer said.
The Guttmacher Institute is nearly finished with a study of that question, but Finer declined to discuss the results before they've been published.
Others feel the link is clear-cut.
"I don't think there's any mystery here," said Susan Wills, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The new data underscores that more women are turning away from abortions, even when it's a pregnancy they don't initially want, said Wills, associate director for education in the Conference's Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.
"It shows a real pro-life shift," she said.
More women may be carrying pregnancies to term because of increasing availability of ultrasounds and other information that show "it's a baby from an early time," Wills said.
...
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Abortion in young women and subsequent mental health
J Child Psychol & Psychiat, Vol 47, 2006
Results: Forty-one percent of women had become pregnant on at least one occasion prior to age 25, with 14.6% having an abortion. Those having an abortion had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviours and substance use disorders. This association persisted after adjustment for confounding factors.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that abortion in young women may be associated with increased risks of mental health problems.
Results: Forty-one percent of women had become pregnant on at least one occasion prior to age 25, with 14.6% having an abortion. Those having an abortion had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviours and substance use disorders. This association persisted after adjustment for confounding factors.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that abortion in young women may be associated with increased risks of mental health problems.
Why Abortion Rates Vary: A Geographical Examination of the Supply of and Demand for Abortion Services in the United States in 1988
Ann Assoc Am Geog, Vol 84
The role of states as arbiters of abortion has waxed and waned throughout American history. This paper examines the relative roles of state-imposed regulations on supply conditions and demographic demand factors in the explanation of geographic variation in state abortion rates. Path analysis reveals that supply conditions affect state abortion rates, even after the effects of demand conditions are considered. Moreover, the model shows that supply factors serve as mediators for several key demand variables. A state's population composition influences the level of public funding of abortions for poor women and the political culture's tolerance of abortion. These, in conjunction with the metropolitan nature of a state's population, directly influence the rate of abortion. Results of this analysis imply that the trend toward highly variable state restrictions on abortion in the form of parental consent, mandatory counseling, and waiting periods will lead to larger differences in state abortion rates.
The role of states as arbiters of abortion has waxed and waned throughout American history. This paper examines the relative roles of state-imposed regulations on supply conditions and demographic demand factors in the explanation of geographic variation in state abortion rates. Path analysis reveals that supply conditions affect state abortion rates, even after the effects of demand conditions are considered. Moreover, the model shows that supply factors serve as mediators for several key demand variables. A state's population composition influences the level of public funding of abortions for poor women and the political culture's tolerance of abortion. These, in conjunction with the metropolitan nature of a state's population, directly influence the rate of abortion. Results of this analysis imply that the trend toward highly variable state restrictions on abortion in the form of parental consent, mandatory counseling, and waiting periods will lead to larger differences in state abortion rates.
Young women's experiences of arranging and having abortions
Sociol Health & Illness
Angela Harden & Jane Ogden
Women (n = 54) aged between 16 and 24 were interviewed between one and three hours after their abortion about their experiences. Overall, having an unwanted pregnancy was experienced as a rare event which was accompanied by feelings of lack of control and loss of status. Further, the process of arranging and having an abortion led to a reinstatement of status, control and normality. However, this process was sometimes hindered by inaccessible information, judgmental health professionals and the wider social context of abortion in which abortion is seen as a generally negative experience. In the main though, most of these negative experiences were associated with accessing the abortion service and the professionals who act as gatekeepers to the service rather than those who work within the service itself. Therefore, although young women's experiences were wide-ranging and varied, most were positive, and at times even negative expectations were compensated by supportive staff, indicating that abortion services may not be as judgmental in the late 20th century as suggested in previous decades.
Angela Harden & Jane Ogden
Women (n = 54) aged between 16 and 24 were interviewed between one and three hours after their abortion about their experiences. Overall, having an unwanted pregnancy was experienced as a rare event which was accompanied by feelings of lack of control and loss of status. Further, the process of arranging and having an abortion led to a reinstatement of status, control and normality. However, this process was sometimes hindered by inaccessible information, judgmental health professionals and the wider social context of abortion in which abortion is seen as a generally negative experience. In the main though, most of these negative experiences were associated with accessing the abortion service and the professionals who act as gatekeepers to the service rather than those who work within the service itself. Therefore, although young women's experiences were wide-ranging and varied, most were positive, and at times even negative expectations were compensated by supportive staff, indicating that abortion services may not be as judgmental in the late 20th century as suggested in previous decades.
PREDICTING STATE ABORTION LEGISLATION FROM U.S. SENATE VOTES: THE EFFECTS OF APPARENT IDEOLOGICAL SHIRKING
Rev Policy Res, Vol 9
The recent Supreme Court decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services giving more discretion to states to regulate abortion has led to speculation concerning which states might move to limit abortions. Medoff (1989) attempts to predict how state legislatures might vote on state-level abortion legislation by examining the 1983 Senate vote on the Hatch/Eagleton Amendment. We expand upon Medoff's analysis by incor- porating recent developments in agency theory as it applies to the political agents (i.e., Senators) in the empirical model. The results demonstrate that accounting for Senatorial "shirking" and state ideology substantially im- proves the predictive ability of the model for the Senate abortion vote. The predicted votes of the state's Senators, after eliminating the effects of apparent Senatorial shirking, are used to infer the likelihood of state-level legislation substantially restricting abortion. We compare these results to a base model that ignores the issue of shirking and find increased predict- ability and several differing results.
The recent Supreme Court decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services giving more discretion to states to regulate abortion has led to speculation concerning which states might move to limit abortions. Medoff (1989) attempts to predict how state legislatures might vote on state-level abortion legislation by examining the 1983 Senate vote on the Hatch/Eagleton Amendment. We expand upon Medoff's analysis by incor- porating recent developments in agency theory as it applies to the political agents (i.e., Senators) in the empirical model. The results demonstrate that accounting for Senatorial "shirking" and state ideology substantially im- proves the predictive ability of the model for the Senate abortion vote. The predicted votes of the state's Senators, after eliminating the effects of apparent Senatorial shirking, are used to infer the likelihood of state-level legislation substantially restricting abortion. We compare these results to a base model that ignores the issue of shirking and find increased predict- ability and several differing results.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Family-centered preventive intervention science: toward benefits to larger populations of children, youth, and families
Entrez PubMed
The field of family-centered preventive intervention science is well poised to seize an opportunity for larger-scale intervention implementation and greater public health impact. This opportunity has been created by earlier research in the areas of epidemiology, developmental etiology, and intervention outcome research. Both earlier and current research define a number of key tasks required to meet the many challenges involved in scaling-up for greater impact. Illustrations of how these tasks can be addressed are provided in articles on programs of family-centered research with infants, children, and adolescents. Each article in this special issue treats one or more tasks that concern (a) expansion of the set of rigorously evaluated, theory-driven interventions that have potential to reach large numbers of children, youth, and families; (b) effective strategies for family recruitment and retention; (c) cultural sensitivity of interventions; (d) application of a developmental life course perspective; (e) strategies for linking higher-risk population subgroups with potentially beneficial services; (f) improved diffusion mechanisms for sustained, quality delivery; and (g) policy making informed by research, including economic analysis. A summary of how articles address these tasks concludes with a discussion of the importance of futher strengthening a public service orientation in prevention science.
The field of family-centered preventive intervention science is well poised to seize an opportunity for larger-scale intervention implementation and greater public health impact. This opportunity has been created by earlier research in the areas of epidemiology, developmental etiology, and intervention outcome research. Both earlier and current research define a number of key tasks required to meet the many challenges involved in scaling-up for greater impact. Illustrations of how these tasks can be addressed are provided in articles on programs of family-centered research with infants, children, and adolescents. Each article in this special issue treats one or more tasks that concern (a) expansion of the set of rigorously evaluated, theory-driven interventions that have potential to reach large numbers of children, youth, and families; (b) effective strategies for family recruitment and retention; (c) cultural sensitivity of interventions; (d) application of a developmental life course perspective; (e) strategies for linking higher-risk population subgroups with potentially beneficial services; (f) improved diffusion mechanisms for sustained, quality delivery; and (g) policy making informed by research, including economic analysis. A summary of how articles address these tasks concludes with a discussion of the importance of futher strengthening a public service orientation in prevention science.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Hillary Clinton says GOP deficit bill will increase abortions
wcax
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wades back into the highly charged abortion debate. She charged yesterday that a G-O-P cost-cutting measure will boost the number of abortions in the United States.
Clinton said a piece of a pending deficit-reduction measure would indirectly raise the number of abortions by leaving poor women with less Medicaid coverage for contraception.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wades back into the highly charged abortion debate. She charged yesterday that a G-O-P cost-cutting measure will boost the number of abortions in the United States.
Clinton said a piece of a pending deficit-reduction measure would indirectly raise the number of abortions by leaving poor women with less Medicaid coverage for contraception.
Abortion Battles Without Much Effect On Abortions
theatlantic.com
You might think that something huge was at stake from the sound and fury accompanying the November 30 Supreme Court argument about New Hampshire's restrictions on minors' access to abortion, and the pending challenge to the 2003 act of Congress banning "partial-birth" abortion.
Abortion-rights advocates warn that any decision upholding restrictions on abortion in either case would jeopardize women's health and set the stage for evisceration of Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion advocates portray the lower-court decisions striking down these laws before they took effect as steps toward the destruction of the American family and the legalization of infanticide.
...
Stuart Taylor Jr. is a senior writer and columnist for National Journal and a contributing editor at Newsweek. This column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C.
You might think that something huge was at stake from the sound and fury accompanying the November 30 Supreme Court argument about New Hampshire's restrictions on minors' access to abortion, and the pending challenge to the 2003 act of Congress banning "partial-birth" abortion.
Abortion-rights advocates warn that any decision upholding restrictions on abortion in either case would jeopardize women's health and set the stage for evisceration of Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion advocates portray the lower-court decisions striking down these laws before they took effect as steps toward the destruction of the American family and the legalization of infanticide.
...
Stuart Taylor Jr. is a senior writer and columnist for National Journal and a contributing editor at Newsweek. This column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues in the States: Major Trends in 2005
www.guttmacher.org
State legislatures paid particular attention to sexual and reproductive health policy issues in 2005. A total of 98 new laws were enacted, just over half of which are aimed at restricting access to abortion while a quarter seek to expand access to contraception. Moreover, of the 195 abortion restrictions adopted in the six legislative years beginning in 2000, fully one-quarter were enacted in 2005 alone. Similarly, of the 83 measures enacted since 2000 to promote contraceptive access, one-quarter were adopted last year.
...
State legislatures paid particular attention to sexual and reproductive health policy issues in 2005. A total of 98 new laws were enacted, just over half of which are aimed at restricting access to abortion while a quarter seek to expand access to contraception. Moreover, of the 195 abortion restrictions adopted in the six legislative years beginning in 2000, fully one-quarter were enacted in 2005 alone. Similarly, of the 83 measures enacted since 2000 to promote contraceptive access, one-quarter were adopted last year.
...
New Hampshire's never-enforced abortion law to go before justices
Winston-Salem Journal
To some, a never-enforced New Hampshire law requiring parental notification before a minor has an abortion is a backward step for women's rights. To others, it protects parents' rights to know whether their child is having an abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider those arguments Wed-nesday as it begins to weigh whe-ther to reinstate a law that requires parental notification 48 hours before an abortion can be performed on a person younger than 18.
...
Nearly all states have laws requiring some kind of parental involvement when minors have abortions. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonpro-fit group that researches reproductive-health issues, 21 states require parental consent and 13 require parental notification. Nine other states, including New Hampshire, have laws that aren't in effect because they have been blocked by court orders.
To some, a never-enforced New Hampshire law requiring parental notification before a minor has an abortion is a backward step for women's rights. To others, it protects parents' rights to know whether their child is having an abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider those arguments Wed-nesday as it begins to weigh whe-ther to reinstate a law that requires parental notification 48 hours before an abortion can be performed on a person younger than 18.
...
Nearly all states have laws requiring some kind of parental involvement when minors have abortions. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonpro-fit group that researches reproductive-health issues, 21 states require parental consent and 13 require parental notification. Nine other states, including New Hampshire, have laws that aren't in effect because they have been blocked by court orders.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Culture war puts crack in EU
Kansas City Star
BRUSSELS, Belgium — When Polish members of the European Parliament placed an anti-abortion display in a parliamentary corridor in Strasbourg, France, Ana Gomes, a Socialist legislator from Portugal, felt compelled to act. The display showed children in a concentration camp, linking abortion and Nazi crimes. A loud scuffle ensued as she and the Poles traded insults before guards bundled the display away.
...
BRUSSELS, Belgium — When Polish members of the European Parliament placed an anti-abortion display in a parliamentary corridor in Strasbourg, France, Ana Gomes, a Socialist legislator from Portugal, felt compelled to act. The display showed children in a concentration camp, linking abortion and Nazi crimes. A loud scuffle ensued as she and the Poles traded insults before guards bundled the display away.
...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Court weighs girls' access to abortion
csmonitor.com
WASHINGTON - Wednesday the US Supreme Court takes up a case that could change the abortion battle in a fundamental way, potentially allowing state lawmakers across the nation to enact more-restrictive regulations on a woman's right to choose abortion.
...
WASHINGTON - Wednesday the US Supreme Court takes up a case that could change the abortion battle in a fundamental way, potentially allowing state lawmakers across the nation to enact more-restrictive regulations on a woman's right to choose abortion.
...
Friday, November 25, 2005
Class Wide Peer Tutoring Program
Promising Practices Network
Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) was developed during the early 1980s at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas, a community-based program devoted to improving the developmental outcomes of children, with or without disabilities, who live in low-income areas. The program addresses both the school and home environments of the children in the program. It is an instructional model based on reciprocal peer tutoring that could be used at any grade level, but has been evaluated primarily for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, with current work being done at the middle school level.
...
Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) was developed during the early 1980s at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas, a community-based program devoted to improving the developmental outcomes of children, with or without disabilities, who live in low-income areas. The program addresses both the school and home environments of the children in the program. It is an instructional model based on reciprocal peer tutoring that could be used at any grade level, but has been evaluated primarily for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, with current work being done at the middle school level.
...
On common ground: Blue Moon Group members, representing opposite sides of abortion debate, agree to goals
CITIZEN-TIMES.com (north carolina)
By Joy Franklin, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
With Judge Samuel Alito’s position on abortion a central question in his confirmation as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, the debate over one of the most polarizing and divisive issues in American politics continues more than 30 years after the procedure was made legal by the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.
Polls show that people believe no single issue before the court has greater importance.
It’s hard to imagine activists on opposite sides of the issue having a civil conversation about the subject, much less finding common ground.
But that’s just what a group about evenly divided among strongly pro-choice and strongly pro-life advocates, which has been quietly gathering in Asheville since November 2002, has accomplished.
The Blue Moon Group began meeting in an effort to reduce the chance of violence in our community around the issue of abortion. They took their name from the fact that they first met at the Blue Moon Café on Biltmore Avenue, which is now out of business. When one member of the group observed that the opportunity for the kind of discussion taking place within the group only comes around “once in a blue moon,” the name seemed an obvious choice. It reflects the uniqueness of the group’s accomplishment.
Three years later, their respect and affection for each other has grown into friendship despite their deeply held opposing views of abortion. That relationship of trust has helped them establish a list of jointly held principles, which describe the “common ground” they hold in approaching the issue of abortion. They regard the recently completed Common Ground Statement as a working document that may be modified as their discussions continue.
The concepts the statement advocates — talking together and forming relationships, decreasing abortions, relieving socioeconomic conditions that lead women to consider abortion, promoting adoption, providing accurate information and disavowing physical and verbal violence — are not revolutionary. But the fact that a group of people with such strongly divergent views could join together to advance them is.
It wasn’t that difficult to arrive at the seven areas of agreement that resulted from their discussions, but the group found it difficult to hone the concepts and to find the right words for expressing them.
“The process has taken us years,” Dr. Lorraine Cummings, M.D., owner of Femcare, said. “I think it’s remarkable how much discussion was necessary to get the wording exactly right.”
The Rev. Jeff Hutchinson, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church made the first attempt at putting their areas of agreement in writing. It failed The Karen Test.
“One of the participants here, Chuck (Andrews), took the initial draft to his wife, Karen, who looked at what we had written and said ‘You’re going to be misunderstood by one side or the other side or both,’” explained Monroe Gilmour, a community organizer on racial discrimination and bigotry and a volunteer escort at Femcare. “So, the conclusion we came to was that maybe we had not honed the statement down to the nitty-gritty essence of what we agree on.”
Nonetheless, Gilmour joked, that draft had “the eloquence of Thomas Jefferson.”
“I was just cribbing big chunks from the Declaration of Independence,” Hutchinson responded, getting a laugh from other group members.
“The crux of this was in the semantics because we had to be sure that how each thing was worded didn’t imply something that we couldn’t all live with,” said Lynn von Unwerth, a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood. “…I think that we spent the most time on not the actual concept itself. I think we didn’t have a problem with the concept when we got it down to what we wanted to put in it. It was how we wanted to word it so that it didn’t say something we didn’t want it to say.”
For example, there was a lot of discussion around the use of the word “lead” in the statement, “We agree that relieving the socio-economic and other conditions that lead women to consider abortion is a common goal.”
“Initially we considered using ‘force’ women to do it or ‘tempt’ or ‘drive,’ but we felt each of those words had more judgmental tones than we wanted to make,” Gilmour said. “We settled on ‘lead’ because, whatever we feel about the value of women’s reasons for considering an abortion, we did want to acknowledge the reality that socio-economic conditions do in fact often lead women to choose to have an abortion.”
“Exactly,” Hutchinson said, “I knew I needed to acknowledge that certain circumstances make abortion much harder to resist, while at the same time making sure we didn’t adopt a view of human nature as if we are just machines being acted upon by outside forces and thus ‘forced’ into making choices, like Pavlov’s dog. And so just that simple word ‘lead’ was a word that was in the middle.”’
Being able to work through such potential impediments to agreement was possible because of the relationships that exist within the group. Getting to know one another as individuals helped demolish stereotypes, but a willingness to listen and a sense of humility were important factors in the ability to find common ground, group members say.
At the beginning of each meeting, group members “check-in,” noting significant events in their lives over the past month. It’s an opportunity to learn about such milestones as the upcoming appearance of Hutchinson’s daughter and Cummings’ son in a dance recital and an Asheville Community Theater production, respectively, and Trinity Associate Pastor Donnie Williams’ trip to Pittsburgh to see the Steelers play, and about retired minister Bob Rhymer’s sad duty of attending the funeral of a friend who died of cancer.
Such connections build friendship, but Femcare nurse midwife Bonnie Frontino said it was the willingness of the members of the group who oppose abortion to truly listen that made the relationships work.
“I think that’s the issue here, that Jeff and Donnie and Ann and Chuck, they were willing to actually listen to what we had to say, rather than just dismiss us,” Frontino said.
Rhymer, who joined the group after it had already been meeting for some time and who is also a volunteer escort at Femcare, has another view of what makes it work.
“What enables any group or any two individuals to do what you’re doing is a sense of humility. … In this group, I’ve never sensed anything but a sense of humility in terms of your point of view. And I’m not saying that I don’t sense that you believe what you believe and you know what you believe… All of you, from the moment I walked in here, it felt like I had come home, from my point of view in terms of what Christianity is all about.”
Members on both sides of the abortion issue say they have had an opportunity to learn and grow thanks to their relationships within the group.
“I found that the theology that you all shared with us affected the wording (of the Common Ground Statement) in ways I wouldn’t have expected,” Gilmour said. “We learned a lot about theology and that was interesting and useful. I think this understanding ensured a more in-depth examination of our common ground.”
For Hutchinson, learning about women in crisis pregnancies was an eye-opener.
“…I have grown, thanks to you all and the actual experience with women in crisis pregnancies that you have had, in understanding better the weight of socioeconomic conditions that would lead a woman to consider abortion as a genuine option. On the front end, two or three years ago, coming from where I have come from as a suburban upper-middle class kid, I think I was too moralistic and even self-righteous, thinking, ‘more women just need to do what’s right,’ and I was not sensitive enough to know just how hard that can be… Because again, in my own experience, when I was at Duke or wherever, the women I have known who have had abortions were not being economically stressed. So I needed to be told about the real lives of other real women, so that I could better understand the stress that is so often present.
“The other thing that jumps out at me is the damage that verbal violence does in this whole debate. I have never been in favor of real violence to stop abortion, but I at least was ambivalent about the use of verbal violence… But all of our discussions together have forced me to center in on what the Bible actually says about such things, instead of what different sophists might say. For instance, I began to think more and more about how Christ Himself actually spoke, and whether he ever lied or was argumentative, and His purity convicted me. Or I began to think about how the Apostle Paul instructed a young pastor like me, Timothy, telling him ‘the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.’ And so all of this has been an area of growth for me too.”
Several members of the group reflected on how being part of the Blue Moon Group has affected their view of their own and others’ attitudes toward those with whom they have strong disagreements. For example, Gilmour said he’s become keenly aware of the difference between the atmosphere in the Blue Moon Group and other groups and situations he’s involved with.
“So it’s been a great mirror to see myself and to challenge myself,” he said. “Though I definitely have not lived up to it in other situations to the degree I feel comfortable in this group.”
Andrews said that even though he believes abortion is wrong, and even evil, being part of the group has made him more aware of the usefulness to a political agenda of demonizing the opposition.
“Being part of these discussions has helped me to recognize it when I see it happening,” he said. “And it’s grievous to me to see it when some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are convinced of a position which dehumanizes others and don’t recognize that their attitude toward ‘pro-aborts’ is really more of a useful political tool than representative of biblical truth.”
The problems associated with adoption came as a surprise to some members of the group and led to a major area of common ground – that adoption should be more encouraged and more accessible.
“The young women we see and do options counseling with, are from an era when abortion has always been legal,” said von Unwerth. “And I think adoption was more thought of say, in the early to mid-70s, because adoption was the only legal option. And I think that now they don’t have any reference to it at all or any experience with it. …And maybe some of the problem is that education and awareness aren’t happening. ….’”
Group member Ann Wingfield, a nurse and a member of Trinity, said she’d had a similar experience.
“I remember a young mom I had at the hospital that was giving her baby up for adoption and I told her…I knew people who themselves had been adopted or their kids had and the young woman was just floored, because she, I guess, had no exposure to adoption. She had chosen this route but still was wondering what she was sending her baby to, so I was glad I could encourage her, but still was taken aback that she was so unfamiliar with the concept herself.’’
In his circle of friends and acquaintances, Hutchinson said, adoption is seen as a genuine blessing, but Frontino said her experience has made her wonder whether there’s come to be more of a social stigma around placing a baby up for adoption than there is around having an abortion.
It’s one of the things Frontino said she would like the Blue Moon Group to pursue.
“I would … like to find some way to decrease the stigma around adoption,” she said. “I think that’s going to be an important thing to do. Somehow or other it’s been stigmatized and maybe there’s something that we can do….”
Von Unwerth agreed. “…International adoption is OK, it’s adoption of American children that’s not OK, especially when you’re talking about adoption of bi-racial children. That’s got to change.”
As the group continues to meet, its members will continue to work on ways to advance the goals they’ve agreed they have in common. “In a way, we went through the process and wrote it for ourselves so we would have a benchmark: this is what we as a group believe and agree on,” Gilmour said. “At the same time, I think it is our hope that others will pursue their own common ground actions on this issue.”
And on other subjects as well.
...
By Joy Franklin, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
With Judge Samuel Alito’s position on abortion a central question in his confirmation as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, the debate over one of the most polarizing and divisive issues in American politics continues more than 30 years after the procedure was made legal by the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.
Polls show that people believe no single issue before the court has greater importance.
It’s hard to imagine activists on opposite sides of the issue having a civil conversation about the subject, much less finding common ground.
But that’s just what a group about evenly divided among strongly pro-choice and strongly pro-life advocates, which has been quietly gathering in Asheville since November 2002, has accomplished.
The Blue Moon Group began meeting in an effort to reduce the chance of violence in our community around the issue of abortion. They took their name from the fact that they first met at the Blue Moon Café on Biltmore Avenue, which is now out of business. When one member of the group observed that the opportunity for the kind of discussion taking place within the group only comes around “once in a blue moon,” the name seemed an obvious choice. It reflects the uniqueness of the group’s accomplishment.
Three years later, their respect and affection for each other has grown into friendship despite their deeply held opposing views of abortion. That relationship of trust has helped them establish a list of jointly held principles, which describe the “common ground” they hold in approaching the issue of abortion. They regard the recently completed Common Ground Statement as a working document that may be modified as their discussions continue.
The concepts the statement advocates — talking together and forming relationships, decreasing abortions, relieving socioeconomic conditions that lead women to consider abortion, promoting adoption, providing accurate information and disavowing physical and verbal violence — are not revolutionary. But the fact that a group of people with such strongly divergent views could join together to advance them is.
It wasn’t that difficult to arrive at the seven areas of agreement that resulted from their discussions, but the group found it difficult to hone the concepts and to find the right words for expressing them.
“The process has taken us years,” Dr. Lorraine Cummings, M.D., owner of Femcare, said. “I think it’s remarkable how much discussion was necessary to get the wording exactly right.”
The Rev. Jeff Hutchinson, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church made the first attempt at putting their areas of agreement in writing. It failed The Karen Test.
“One of the participants here, Chuck (Andrews), took the initial draft to his wife, Karen, who looked at what we had written and said ‘You’re going to be misunderstood by one side or the other side or both,’” explained Monroe Gilmour, a community organizer on racial discrimination and bigotry and a volunteer escort at Femcare. “So, the conclusion we came to was that maybe we had not honed the statement down to the nitty-gritty essence of what we agree on.”
Nonetheless, Gilmour joked, that draft had “the eloquence of Thomas Jefferson.”
“I was just cribbing big chunks from the Declaration of Independence,” Hutchinson responded, getting a laugh from other group members.
“The crux of this was in the semantics because we had to be sure that how each thing was worded didn’t imply something that we couldn’t all live with,” said Lynn von Unwerth, a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood. “…I think that we spent the most time on not the actual concept itself. I think we didn’t have a problem with the concept when we got it down to what we wanted to put in it. It was how we wanted to word it so that it didn’t say something we didn’t want it to say.”
For example, there was a lot of discussion around the use of the word “lead” in the statement, “We agree that relieving the socio-economic and other conditions that lead women to consider abortion is a common goal.”
“Initially we considered using ‘force’ women to do it or ‘tempt’ or ‘drive,’ but we felt each of those words had more judgmental tones than we wanted to make,” Gilmour said. “We settled on ‘lead’ because, whatever we feel about the value of women’s reasons for considering an abortion, we did want to acknowledge the reality that socio-economic conditions do in fact often lead women to choose to have an abortion.”
“Exactly,” Hutchinson said, “I knew I needed to acknowledge that certain circumstances make abortion much harder to resist, while at the same time making sure we didn’t adopt a view of human nature as if we are just machines being acted upon by outside forces and thus ‘forced’ into making choices, like Pavlov’s dog. And so just that simple word ‘lead’ was a word that was in the middle.”’
Being able to work through such potential impediments to agreement was possible because of the relationships that exist within the group. Getting to know one another as individuals helped demolish stereotypes, but a willingness to listen and a sense of humility were important factors in the ability to find common ground, group members say.
At the beginning of each meeting, group members “check-in,” noting significant events in their lives over the past month. It’s an opportunity to learn about such milestones as the upcoming appearance of Hutchinson’s daughter and Cummings’ son in a dance recital and an Asheville Community Theater production, respectively, and Trinity Associate Pastor Donnie Williams’ trip to Pittsburgh to see the Steelers play, and about retired minister Bob Rhymer’s sad duty of attending the funeral of a friend who died of cancer.
Such connections build friendship, but Femcare nurse midwife Bonnie Frontino said it was the willingness of the members of the group who oppose abortion to truly listen that made the relationships work.
“I think that’s the issue here, that Jeff and Donnie and Ann and Chuck, they were willing to actually listen to what we had to say, rather than just dismiss us,” Frontino said.
Rhymer, who joined the group after it had already been meeting for some time and who is also a volunteer escort at Femcare, has another view of what makes it work.
“What enables any group or any two individuals to do what you’re doing is a sense of humility. … In this group, I’ve never sensed anything but a sense of humility in terms of your point of view. And I’m not saying that I don’t sense that you believe what you believe and you know what you believe… All of you, from the moment I walked in here, it felt like I had come home, from my point of view in terms of what Christianity is all about.”
Members on both sides of the abortion issue say they have had an opportunity to learn and grow thanks to their relationships within the group.
“I found that the theology that you all shared with us affected the wording (of the Common Ground Statement) in ways I wouldn’t have expected,” Gilmour said. “We learned a lot about theology and that was interesting and useful. I think this understanding ensured a more in-depth examination of our common ground.”
For Hutchinson, learning about women in crisis pregnancies was an eye-opener.
“…I have grown, thanks to you all and the actual experience with women in crisis pregnancies that you have had, in understanding better the weight of socioeconomic conditions that would lead a woman to consider abortion as a genuine option. On the front end, two or three years ago, coming from where I have come from as a suburban upper-middle class kid, I think I was too moralistic and even self-righteous, thinking, ‘more women just need to do what’s right,’ and I was not sensitive enough to know just how hard that can be… Because again, in my own experience, when I was at Duke or wherever, the women I have known who have had abortions were not being economically stressed. So I needed to be told about the real lives of other real women, so that I could better understand the stress that is so often present.
“The other thing that jumps out at me is the damage that verbal violence does in this whole debate. I have never been in favor of real violence to stop abortion, but I at least was ambivalent about the use of verbal violence… But all of our discussions together have forced me to center in on what the Bible actually says about such things, instead of what different sophists might say. For instance, I began to think more and more about how Christ Himself actually spoke, and whether he ever lied or was argumentative, and His purity convicted me. Or I began to think about how the Apostle Paul instructed a young pastor like me, Timothy, telling him ‘the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.’ And so all of this has been an area of growth for me too.”
Several members of the group reflected on how being part of the Blue Moon Group has affected their view of their own and others’ attitudes toward those with whom they have strong disagreements. For example, Gilmour said he’s become keenly aware of the difference between the atmosphere in the Blue Moon Group and other groups and situations he’s involved with.
“So it’s been a great mirror to see myself and to challenge myself,” he said. “Though I definitely have not lived up to it in other situations to the degree I feel comfortable in this group.”
Andrews said that even though he believes abortion is wrong, and even evil, being part of the group has made him more aware of the usefulness to a political agenda of demonizing the opposition.
“Being part of these discussions has helped me to recognize it when I see it happening,” he said. “And it’s grievous to me to see it when some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are convinced of a position which dehumanizes others and don’t recognize that their attitude toward ‘pro-aborts’ is really more of a useful political tool than representative of biblical truth.”
The problems associated with adoption came as a surprise to some members of the group and led to a major area of common ground – that adoption should be more encouraged and more accessible.
“The young women we see and do options counseling with, are from an era when abortion has always been legal,” said von Unwerth. “And I think adoption was more thought of say, in the early to mid-70s, because adoption was the only legal option. And I think that now they don’t have any reference to it at all or any experience with it. …And maybe some of the problem is that education and awareness aren’t happening. ….’”
Group member Ann Wingfield, a nurse and a member of Trinity, said she’d had a similar experience.
“I remember a young mom I had at the hospital that was giving her baby up for adoption and I told her…I knew people who themselves had been adopted or their kids had and the young woman was just floored, because she, I guess, had no exposure to adoption. She had chosen this route but still was wondering what she was sending her baby to, so I was glad I could encourage her, but still was taken aback that she was so unfamiliar with the concept herself.’’
In his circle of friends and acquaintances, Hutchinson said, adoption is seen as a genuine blessing, but Frontino said her experience has made her wonder whether there’s come to be more of a social stigma around placing a baby up for adoption than there is around having an abortion.
It’s one of the things Frontino said she would like the Blue Moon Group to pursue.
“I would … like to find some way to decrease the stigma around adoption,” she said. “I think that’s going to be an important thing to do. Somehow or other it’s been stigmatized and maybe there’s something that we can do….”
Von Unwerth agreed. “…International adoption is OK, it’s adoption of American children that’s not OK, especially when you’re talking about adoption of bi-racial children. That’s got to change.”
As the group continues to meet, its members will continue to work on ways to advance the goals they’ve agreed they have in common. “In a way, we went through the process and wrote it for ourselves so we would have a benchmark: this is what we as a group believe and agree on,” Gilmour said. “At the same time, I think it is our hope that others will pursue their own common ground actions on this issue.”
And on other subjects as well.
...
Thursday, November 17, 2005
County-Level Estimates of the Effects of a Universal Preschool Program in California
RAND
Growing interest in universal preschool education has prompted researchers to examine the potential costs and benefits of making high-quality preschool available for all children. This study presents estimates, at a disaggregated geographic level, of the potential benefits from a high-quality, one-year, universal preschool program in California. Building on the methodology employed by the author in an earlier RAND study, estimates are generated for the 13 largest California counties and for five county groups, which together represent 96 percent of the projected California population of 4-year-olds over the next decade. The analysis focuses on a series of nine outcomes specific to educational processes and attainment, child maltreatment, and juvenile crime. The effect of a universal preschool program for each annual cohort of 4-year-olds served by such a program is estimated for each outcome and geographic unit. Where possible, the baseline level of the outcome in the absence of a universal preschool program is also estimated, enabling the absolute changes to be measured in percentage terms. Because there are a number of uncertainties associated with the estimates, they are not intended to capture the exact effects of a particular program. Rather, they provide a gauge for the size of the effects and how they might differ across different geographic units in the state. These effects are of interest in their own right, and they are also associated with significant dollar benefits for a variety of stakeholders — benefits estimated to exceed the cost of providing a high-quality, universal preschool program.
Growing interest in universal preschool education has prompted researchers to examine the potential costs and benefits of making high-quality preschool available for all children. This study presents estimates, at a disaggregated geographic level, of the potential benefits from a high-quality, one-year, universal preschool program in California. Building on the methodology employed by the author in an earlier RAND study, estimates are generated for the 13 largest California counties and for five county groups, which together represent 96 percent of the projected California population of 4-year-olds over the next decade. The analysis focuses on a series of nine outcomes specific to educational processes and attainment, child maltreatment, and juvenile crime. The effect of a universal preschool program for each annual cohort of 4-year-olds served by such a program is estimated for each outcome and geographic unit. Where possible, the baseline level of the outcome in the absence of a universal preschool program is also estimated, enabling the absolute changes to be measured in percentage terms. Because there are a number of uncertainties associated with the estimates, they are not intended to capture the exact effects of a particular program. Rather, they provide a gauge for the size of the effects and how they might differ across different geographic units in the state. These effects are of interest in their own right, and they are also associated with significant dollar benefits for a variety of stakeholders — benefits estimated to exceed the cost of providing a high-quality, universal preschool program.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Panel focused on pregnancy care (common ground)
The Observer (Notre Dame and Saint Mary's)
""While pro-life and pro-choice advocates are polarized on many issues concerning abortion, they agreed on one point Monday in LaFortune Ballroom at the Notre Dame Common Ground Project - society does not do enough to protect and provide for pregnant women.
This was the focus of the forum where professors and students came together to discuss, understand and find common concerns in the abortion debate, particularly how to help pregnant women socially, financially and medically.
The project was organized by Notre Dame senior Kaitlyn Redfield and sponsored by the Feminist Voice, the Department of Sociology, the Program in Gender Studies, the Hesburgh Program in Public Service and the Gender Relations Center in an attempt to foster respectful dialogue between pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
"At this institution, we grapple with many important questions," Redfield said. "Our goal is to honor the humanity on both sides of the debate, to understand each other, to understand the scope of this issue."
The event featured a faculty panel of Kathleen Cummings, associate director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism; Teresa Phelps, professor at the Notre Dame Law School and fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies; and Todd Whitmore, associate professor of Theology and director of the Program in Catholic Social Teaching.
"This is one of the very, very few times I have heard anything like this at Notre Dame … Both the pro-life and pro-choice positions define both life and choice in narrow ways," said Phelps. "Instead of trying to preserve or overturn Roe vs. Wade, we should all work to reduce the number of abortions. Many times in the debate, either the fetus or the woman has the rights, and this either/or dichotomy is ill-described."
All three panelists focused on what society should do in order to better care for pregnant women.
Cummings told a story from her early years of teaching when one of her students had an abortion because she had too little support and resources. Cummings said her student may not have felt so helpless if the institution had been like the "Dream Campus," a vision by Feminists for Life, a group containing both pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
"The goal of the Dream Campus is to reduce the number of abortions by providing parents with resources," said Cummings. "On the Dream Campus, there would be pregnancy and parenting resource centers, family housing, scholarship funds for parents, cry rooms in the library, and an accommodating class schedule."
Whitmore spoke of the Nurturing Network, a nonprofit program started in 1986 that also helps pregnant women and new mothers with medical costs. In addition to financial support, pregnant women need to be socially accepted, Whitmore said.
"Catholic women who have abortions are seven percent more likely than other women to say they are having the abortion because they are afraid of retribution from others finding out they had sex," said Whitmore. "This raises questions about whether a punitive attitude toward sex raises the number of abortions. Fear of retribution from having sex outside marriage drives women to commit an even greater sin."
Phelps said that besides financial and health issues, at the heart of the abortion debate is morality.
"We say we value babies, but as a society, we don't demonstrate that," Phelps said. "We make it so difficult for women who are pregnant. We should not tolerate society's not taking care of women."
"Is 'common ground' possible? Frankly, it's all we've got," said Phelps.
""While pro-life and pro-choice advocates are polarized on many issues concerning abortion, they agreed on one point Monday in LaFortune Ballroom at the Notre Dame Common Ground Project - society does not do enough to protect and provide for pregnant women.
This was the focus of the forum where professors and students came together to discuss, understand and find common concerns in the abortion debate, particularly how to help pregnant women socially, financially and medically.
The project was organized by Notre Dame senior Kaitlyn Redfield and sponsored by the Feminist Voice, the Department of Sociology, the Program in Gender Studies, the Hesburgh Program in Public Service and the Gender Relations Center in an attempt to foster respectful dialogue between pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
"At this institution, we grapple with many important questions," Redfield said. "Our goal is to honor the humanity on both sides of the debate, to understand each other, to understand the scope of this issue."
The event featured a faculty panel of Kathleen Cummings, associate director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism; Teresa Phelps, professor at the Notre Dame Law School and fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies; and Todd Whitmore, associate professor of Theology and director of the Program in Catholic Social Teaching.
"This is one of the very, very few times I have heard anything like this at Notre Dame … Both the pro-life and pro-choice positions define both life and choice in narrow ways," said Phelps. "Instead of trying to preserve or overturn Roe vs. Wade, we should all work to reduce the number of abortions. Many times in the debate, either the fetus or the woman has the rights, and this either/or dichotomy is ill-described."
All three panelists focused on what society should do in order to better care for pregnant women.
Cummings told a story from her early years of teaching when one of her students had an abortion because she had too little support and resources. Cummings said her student may not have felt so helpless if the institution had been like the "Dream Campus," a vision by Feminists for Life, a group containing both pro-life and pro-choice advocates.
"The goal of the Dream Campus is to reduce the number of abortions by providing parents with resources," said Cummings. "On the Dream Campus, there would be pregnancy and parenting resource centers, family housing, scholarship funds for parents, cry rooms in the library, and an accommodating class schedule."
Whitmore spoke of the Nurturing Network, a nonprofit program started in 1986 that also helps pregnant women and new mothers with medical costs. In addition to financial support, pregnant women need to be socially accepted, Whitmore said.
"Catholic women who have abortions are seven percent more likely than other women to say they are having the abortion because they are afraid of retribution from others finding out they had sex," said Whitmore. "This raises questions about whether a punitive attitude toward sex raises the number of abortions. Fear of retribution from having sex outside marriage drives women to commit an even greater sin."
Phelps said that besides financial and health issues, at the heart of the abortion debate is morality.
"We say we value babies, but as a society, we don't demonstrate that," Phelps said. "We make it so difficult for women who are pregnant. We should not tolerate society's not taking care of women."
"Is 'common ground' possible? Frankly, it's all we've got," said Phelps.
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