The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 10, 1984 Page: 5 of 24
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THRESHING IT OUT
continued from page 4
procedures, safer than a
tonsillectomy, safer than a shot of
penicillin (David Grime, M.D.,
Center for Disease Control, 1982).
In the first year after legalization,
abortion-related deaths dropped
40 percent (Family Planning
Perspectives, 7:54, 1975). At
present, the mortality rate for all
abortions is approximately one
death per 100,000 abortions, and
less than one percent of all
abortion patients experience
major complications (Christopher
Tietze, M.D., The Population
Council-Center for Policy Studies,
1982). Thus, Dr. David Grimes of
the Center for Disease Control
calculated that an abortion is seven
times safer than childbirth. If
performed during the first three
months of pregnancy (and 90
percent of all abortions are
performed during this time) an
abortion is ten times safer than
childbirth, "these statistics are not
cited to recommend abortion over
childbirth (which has, happily,
also become safer in the last
decade) but to indicate, through
comparison, the extremely low
risk of an abortion. The ad's
emphasis on the danger of
abortion is erroneous and
unfounded.
Strangely enough, if the text of
this ad had appeared in 1969 it may
have been used to support the
legalization of abortion. The
transformation of abortion from a
hazardous procedure to an
increasingly safe and simple one is
explained by legalization.
So why would the Foundation
for Life make such frightening but
misleading claims? I assume that
the Foundation for Life opposes
abortion on moral grounds
although the anti-abortion appeal
of the ad is based on medical
misinformation. My speculation
about the reason for this "back-
door" approach is that having
received so much criticism for
being callous to the needs of the
women who seek abortions, anti-
abortion groups now wish to
appear to have women's welfare as
their major concern.
I believe that abortion is
preeminently a moral issue and
should be discussed as a moral
issue. My own view is to oppose
compulsory pregnancy. It would
be wonderful if there were no such
thing as an unintended
pregnancy; if there were no such
thing as poverty, as rape or incest,
as severe genetic illness, as the
double-standard for men and
women. Such an ideal world might
obviate the need for legalized
abortion. But, given the world that
we have, lacking perfect methods
of contraception and lacking
perfect mistake-proof human
beings, unintended pregnancies
are likely to happen. Each woman
must then have a choice regarding
her pregnancy. She should be able
to choose to continue the
pregnancy and become a parent, to
continue the pregnancy and
relinquish the infant for adoption,
or to choose a safe and legal
abortion. Since abortion is a moral
issue, the choice a woman makes
will be informed by her values and
her understanding of ethical-
decision making. I further believe
that abortion can be, and often is, a
moral choice.
I unequivocally support the
right of anti-abortion groups to
voice their opinions about the
ethical dimensions of the abortion
issue. I recognize the appropriate-
ness of attempts to persuade —
through speeches, through
advertisements, through articles
and letters. Nonetheless, I think it
is frankly deceptive to try to
accomplish one's goal — the
elimination of abortion — by
frightening women with inaccurate
or misleading information about
the safety of an abortion
procedure.
I hope that the Thresher will be
more circumspect in its advertising
policy and will resist deceptive
advertisements. I further hope that
in the future the Thresher will
provide some balance to dramatic
but deluding advertisements by
providing an article on the
opposing view. You should at least
inform your readers regarding
other organizations or agencies
that also offer information or
counseling on the issue of
abortion, for example: Planned
Parenthood of Houston (522-
3976), Texas Abortion Rights
Action League (512-478-0094),
The Religious Coalition for
Abortion Rights (100 Maryland
Ave., NE, Washington, D.C.
20002), Catholics for a Free
Choice (2008 17th St., NW,
Washington, D.C., 10009). One
rarely sees a full-page ad for
groups who belive that abortion
should remain legal and should
remain a matter of individual
choice. Pro-choice groups, though
representing 80 percent of the
voting public, lack the lucrative
backing of right-wing political
groups and right-wing corporate
money. Since we cannot match the
anti-abortion groups ad for ad, we
must depend on the journalists'
sense of fair play and good will.
Megan Seaholm
Graduate Student, History
Ed.' note: The Thresher's policy is
normally to run the advertisements
of people who pay for them. Thus,
the January 27 issue contains on
page 22 the Foundation for Life
advertisement to which you refer,
and on page 23, an ad by the West
Loop Clinic, which offers "Free
Pregnancy Tests, Confidential
Counseling, Ob-Gyn specialists,
Birth Control Information, Early
Detection of Pregnancy, Termina-
tion of Pregnancy." In the
February 3 issue, an ad placed by
the anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy
Center appears on page 17, while
the West Loop Clinic ad is on page
15. The Thresher trusts its readers
ROLLING THE WHEEL by John Cunyus
Forgive me while I let a few of
my personal feelings creep into this
editorial. My grandmother died
last Thursday after having been ill
for a year. While there is certainly
nothing abnormal about that, in
fact it is the one experience besides
birth that every human has in
common, it does give one cause to
stop and reflect for a moment. She
was a very strong lady, a graduate
of the Rice Institute in 1923, and a
loving and hard-working wife and
mother. Her life was not easy — it
was perhaps full of more than her
fair share of pain — and she was
certainly not without faults, but
when I think of her I don't
remember the bad times. I
remember things like spending the
night at her house, playing football
with her in her backyard, enjoying
her smile, and listening to her
laugh. I remember the joys we
shared, the values she taught me,
and the love we had for one
another.
Her death made me think. It
made me think about the mad pace
most of us live our lives at. It made
me think about planning and
worrying over a future that seems
so far away while endless days pass
by unnoticed. It reminded me that
after all our debts are settled, all
our ambitions gone, it is not what
we've earned or done that really is
important in life — it's who we are.
It doesn't matter now whether my
grandmother was rich or poor
(well, it might matter to her heirs),
it doesn't matter who she voted for
or what she wore. What matters
now is how she lived her life and
what kind of impact she had on the
people around her. I look at my
father and his brother and I see her
legacy — it is a legacy of faith in
God, of hard work, of unflinching
integrity and honesty. Her
monument is a living one and I
guess I'm a part of it.
Something else occurred to me
while I was thinking about her.
When I was a child my father's
grandmother died and I cried, as a
child is prone to do. I remember
my grandmother taking my hand
and telling me not to cry because
only her body was dead. My great-
grandmother was with Jesus, she
said, and that calmed me and made
me feel indescribably better. Well,
I'm not a child anymore, needless
to say; I'm an intellectual who has
spent a great deal of time searching
for values and wading through no
small amount of spiritual
emptiness. But somehow I'm just
as comforted now as I was then to
realize that my grandmother is
with Jesus. This is not something
I Ve rationalized in my mind, this is
not a straw to be clutched at; it is a
certainty, it is a comfort that
to make appropriate moral
choices, but appreciates your
providing important information
and comments.
Dupont objects to
Harpold's objection
To the Editor:
In response to Mr. Harpold's
letter of January 27,1 would like to
point out tome erroneous (or
perhaps, misleading) statements.
Mr. Harpold says that the
faculty "went behind the backs" of
the students in circulating their
petition. He is implying that the
faculty did something to which the
student body is opposed and did so
in secrecy. While the faculty did
not announce the fact that they
were circulating a petition, I do not
believe that they made a secret out
of it. More importantly, the
majority of the student body
supports the faculty's stand on this
issue, in light of the fact that a
similar petition was circulated in
the colleges last semester.
Secondly, Mr. Harpold
contradicts himself in admitting
that football is an ancillary
activity, and then going on to stress
the importance of recruiting for
football. By definition, an
ancillary activity (in this case,
football) is one which is
"subordinate to" another activity
(in this case, education). Thus,
recruiting for an ancilllary activity
(and spending millions on it as
well) is a contradiction in terms.
Unfortunately, in the minds of our
athletic supporters, football is
ancillary only in the loosest sense.
Presumably, a successful Rice
football program would attract
more fans, both to home and away
games. Home game tickets cost
$12 each, and when you multiply
that by 70,000, you get a rather
large amount of money. If the
stadium fills just four times next
season, RU would more than
iouble its million dollar
investment. But the question is the
same: Do we sell our high
academic standards? Is it worth it?
On the other hand, Rice baseball
is ranked 12th in the nation, and
yet Cameron Field doesn't even
have a permanent pubic address
system, much less lights. But
baseball will more than likely
remain out in the cold, because
Cameron Field probably can't seat
1,000 spectators (a very liberal
estimate) and baseball tickets are
much cheaper than football
tickets. The profits from baseball
are a pittance compared with the
big money of football. One begins
to wonder which people support
an athletic program as such (for its
social and health benefits), and
which people see athletes and an
athletic program solely in terms of
money.
Allen Dupont
Wiess *87
Back a Fighter
GIVE TO
*Easter
Seals
U®
exceeds all other comforts — she is
with God.
I guess that is a memory that 111
also carry with me forever. My
grandmother was a woman of faith
and a woman who believed that the
universe had no limits. Such faith
and such love cannot be overcome
by anything — hardship couldn't
overcome it while she lived and
death cannot overcome it now that
she has passed away. Her faith
lives on in me and in the hearts of
those who knew her.
Death touches us all but it
doesn't have to be a tragic thing. It
can be a step onward, it can be a
liberation from sorrows, it can be a
joyous homecoming if we only
have enough faith to let it be. Love
survives and conquers all — it can
sustain us too if we allow it too.
Remember this when the semester
heats up and you feel that you have
more than you can handle with
school. Remember that things like
school and careers aren't the most
important things in life because
they aren't things that last; they
fade away and seem trivial after a
while. The things that last and that
are permanent — love, faith, and
integrity — are pre-eminent and
should be our first concern. We all
need to take the time necessary to
enjoy our lives each day or well
someday wake up and wonder
where our lives have gone.
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The Rice Thresher, February 10, 1984, page 5
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Mitchell, Mark M. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 10, 1984, newspaper, February 10, 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245551/m1/5/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.