ustxtxb_obs_1971_03_26_50_00021-00000_000.pdf

Photography Posters Books News Magazines 1AA ”Ir4ppr e t e4 913 W. 24 Austin 478-0284 On abortion Austin The decision of whether to have a child should be the prerogative of the person most directly involved, the pregnant woman. To a growing number of women, pregnancy does not equal motherhood. Abortion upon consent of a pregnant woman should be legalized. The state’s anti-abortion law has been declared unconstitutional and it is an ideal time for the Legislature to take an enlightened position on the issue. State Sens. Tom Creighton and Don Kennard have introduced a bill to allow Texas doctors to perform abortions on consenting women over the age of 16. Rep. Sam Coats of Dallas has drafted a similar bill for introduction in the House. We hope the bills get a favorable hearing. There is another step that should be taken, however, now that the Legislature has to deal with the abortion question. The Texas Abortion Coalition is recommending that Texas allow authorized medical personnel acting under the direct medical supervision of a licensed physician to perform abortions. The coalition endorsed abortions by paramedicals after looking into the not altogether successful New York situation. In New York, the very simplest abortion, one that is done during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, costs , as much as $600 in a New York hospital. Some of these hospitals are guaranteeing gynecologists as much as $2,400 a day for doing abortions full time. Profiteering would be reduced if there were more persons competent to perform abortions. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City, explained the need for paramedical personnel this way on a WBAI radio program: “It’s my feeling that although the law stipulates that [abortion] might be done by a licensed physician, this procedure is simply no more complicated than, for example, dental hygienic procedures or medical corpsmen rendering aid, first aid, to gravely wounded soldiers in the field. So I think we can easily teach paramedical personnel to carry out this procedure. By that I mean, for example, registered nurses, midwives and even practical nurses. Now I envision something like this: four or six rooms working with patients, each manned by perhaps a paramedical person doing the procedure, and a licensed, certified gynecologist circulating through these rooms picking up the problems and supervising the entire operation. In that way I think we can solve the problem of the enormous shortage of personnel.” Abortions, especially abortions by the new vacuum curettage method, are extremely simple, and the risk of infection, Re flections the main hazard involved in abortion, is reduced to a minimum. It is a cheap, simple procedure. In light of this improved technology, we hope the Texas Legislature will consider the possibility legalizing abortions by paramedicals under the direct supervision of physicians. That way it could assure that abortions will be available to all women, not only the wealthy. Reclaiming the streets The young people of this country are reclaiming our public places. It’s a life affirming thing to do, but they are getting little help from stodgy city fathers who throw around the term “street people” as if it meant pimps and whores. Witness the Drag here in Austin: There is a block-long stretch of sidewalk on Guadalupe Street where people have started selling their home-made home-grown wares. You can buy pumpkin bread, candles, incense, paintings, plants, used books, photographs, hand blown glass, painted boxes, blouses, long skirts, beads, belts, bags and all from people. They’ll talk about how they were made, what they’re made of, how long it took to make them. If you buy something, you don’t have to wait for a sales slip and you don’t have to carry it away in a paper bag. The Austin City Council is thinking seriously about passing an ordinance eliminating the vendors because of “congestion on the Drag.” Actually, it’s a wide stretch of sidewalk. The vendors are not blocking access to the stores in the area. Pedestrians are slowed down a bit, but not because of congestion, because they are stopping to look at the wares and talk to the vendors. Congestion indeed! Why doesn’t the city council eliminate the automobiles on that portion of Guadalupe that abuts the UT campus? Why doesn’t the council provide decent bus service and eliminate the cars on the campus itself? Then the vendors could set up shop in the streets, rather than on the sidewalks. One hears mutterings throughout the state about those dirty nothin’s who flock to the parks and actually use them, sometimes even sleep in them! Houston has gone so far as to prohibit the playing of musical instruments in Hermann Park. If the people of this state used their public spaces with as much . zeal as, say, the citizens of France or Mexico use their parks and streets, the authorities here would probably close them down. I hope these guardians of the public interest will come to understand what’s going on. We are reclaiming our environment for human use not for machines, not for profit, not for private consumption for people. In this state, the streets don’t belong to the people, but I hope that they will someday. The payoff Recent federal investigations have brought to light some interesting relationships between Texas politicians and Texas bankers. In this antiseptic age, instead of money grossly changing hands, flesh to flesh, political payoffs often take place via bank loans. There is an interesting tendency for politicians’ loans to be written off by the lender or liquidated by someone other than the politician. If the Frost Bank goes to trial for its it will be interesting to find out who paid off that $7,500 loan. Could the debt possibly have been picked up by that organization of bankers that was collecting a $250,000 campaign chest? We shall see what we shall see. K.N. March 26, 1971 21 CLASSIFIED BOOKPLATES. Free catalog. Many beautiful designs.’ Special designing too. Address: BOOKPLATES, P.O. Box 28-I, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387. ANNE’S TYPING SERVICE: Complete Typing Service and Editing. Duplicating \(printing, Notary. Twenty years experience. Call 442-7008 or 442-0170, Austin. WE SELL THE BEST SOUND. Yamaha pianos, guitars; MoeckKungAulus recorders; harmonicas, kalimbas and other exotic instruments. Amster Music, 1624 Lavaca, Austin. 478-7331.