Editorials
CONTENTS COMMONWEAL Volume CXX, Number 8 Correspondence 2 Editorials ...
...As proBusiness Manager: Richard Haas Design: Emil Antonucci choice groups and their friends in Congress move to absolutize the right to abortion Screen: Richard Alleva through the Access and Freedom of Choice acts, and by lifting the ban on federal Stage: Gerald Weales funding for abortions, they should keep in mind the mixed consequences of their Media: Frank McConnell previous successes...
...compromises from aggressively entrenched interests...
...But all our free- what human rights groups had known and said for years: the doms ultimately rest upon the First Amendment...
...the U.S...
...But in Dred Scott's ex- (D-N.J...
...church not provide this guarantee...
...If a demonstrator's intent is to prevent or discourage a parsimonious boss from entering the clinic, that's not a federal concern...
...Fifteen percent of our population women, three were trained in the U.S...
...James R. Kelly 27 This is crude, hardball politics, but it is not without its own sad irony...
...They come from my nose...
...The U.S...
...In Dred Scott, the Supreme the international community...
...As Abraham Lincoln, the most eloquent and steadfast dicted the amnesty would only further divide the country...
...To now further intimidate or even disenfranchise Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels anti-abortion protesters engaged in peaceful civil disobedience will surely marginalManaging Editor: Patrick Jordan ize such people even more...
...But you The UN report documents what has long been charged...
...Doubtless the distress of women entering clinics Salvador dreaded to hear but had to...
...According to Congressman Robert G. Torcelli not miraculously untangle or uproot...
...Indeed, since the vast majority of demonstrations are peaceand monthly July and August, by Commonweal ful, it is hard to imagine what legitimate remedies such a law might provide to those Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New York, N.Y...
...Many Americans, howev- immediately...
...He pledged to resist the decision peaceably but and to press for contempt proceedings if called for...
...Some level of health care should be conofficers implicated in the murders of the Jesuits were trained sidered a fundamental material right for all U.S...
...is the kind of thinking the Freedom of Access bill would punish...
...Fuerst 6 Plush lawns: Liz Leibold McCloskey 8 Let them eat cake: David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Should there be a law making peaceful civil disobedience at the entrance to 4387, classified advertising correspondence to 15 Dutch St...
...They won't tell you how to handle the messy business of Cristiani government should be contingent upon reform of both how to reform the current system or explain how to extract the military and the judiciary...
...10038...
...BOOKS The perils of such a strategy are exemplified in the Freedom of Access Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals: Diogenes Allen 24 to Clinic Entrances Act now before Congress...
...it would ren- by the Salvadoran military and aligned right-wing death der the First Amendment null and void for those who oppose squads...
...Moreover, the violence was well-planned and sysabortion...
...How can any part of health care be conearfuls about the numerous problems with the current system sidered a want and not a need...
...it is now clear that the Reagan administration misled pansion of the "rights" of slaveholders Lincoln recognized a Congress to win funding, and that it was aware the Salvadoran logic both inimical to self-government and false to this nation's military was "engaged in a widespread campaign of terror...
...increasing costs and decreasing access...
...a key player in the overthrow of Haiti's Aristide government)- 2. Can't have it all...
...divided on this question...
...Such "content-based" prohibitions are a denial of "he is blowing out the moral lights around us...
...04106 (207) 799- laws...
...Like by the U.S...
...Lincoln was not an abolitionist...
...Take them as criteria to evaluate proposrecommendations were not heeded...
...Surely blockading clinics, like blockading the entrances to nucorrespondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, clear power plants or even military bases, is already a violation of local and state 11 Graffam Rd., So...
...Production Editor: Jacqueline Dowdell At some point, all those engaged in this dispute must recognize that the struggle Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt over abortion should not require the unconditional surrender of either side...
...The undoubtedly diminished the perceived moral stature of the pro- conservative press in Salvador dubbed the UN commission the life movement, neither abortion absolutists nor abolitionists can "Lie Commission...
...and the numerous solutions (single-payer or Canadian- Even ignoring these emotionally laden topics, health care in style...
...9 New light under the old bushel: Steven Englund 11 Clinton's new political geography: Wilson Carey McWilliams 14 Poetry: Stephen Stepanchev 18 Screen: Richard Alleva l 8 Unreasonable ambitions Art: Lee Siegel 20 Violence is anathema to all but fringe elements of the prolife moveFrancois Mauriac's 'Le cahier noir': ment...
...We pay for this negligence coneight graduated from the U.S...
...right" to abortion, and find current U.S...
...San Salvador's Archbishop Rivera Court managed to find no legal protection for "Negroes" in the Damas called the report a "historic document" and criticized Constitution, and further astounded its critics by ruling that no the government's amnesty as a "desperate measure...
...shut down by Congress for teaching torture techniques...
...The UN report named top Salvadoran mil4: 23 April 1993 Commonweal itary officers responsible for the crime, the same officials who another voice to the din...
...By now, patients, providers, policy an- in publicly accountable ways...
...Can any of us afford that...
...When he invites any people willing to have slavery, to struction by those involved in a labor dispute, is unconstitutional establish it," Lincoln said of anyone who embraced Dred Scott, on its face...
...the late Roberto d' Aubuisson, charged with the food, clothing, education, and shelter, a full and healthy life is 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, studied at a necessary precondition for life, liberty, and the pursuit of hapthe International Police Academy, a Washington institution later piness...
...The nation cannot More broadly, the Clinton administration's apparent deter- heal its wounds unless it honestly addresses its past, restrucmination to expand access to abortion is more than a political tures the officer corps, and establishes an independent judimistake...
...Joseph Moakley (D-Mass...
...At the moment, the ist-dominated National Assembly rejected the commission's speDemocrats in Congress seem intent on pushing back what few cific recommendations to delay an amnesty and passed one restrictions now apply to abortion...
...uates include Manuel Noriega, Leopoldi Galtieri (who led Ensuring universal access must be the primary priority of any Argentina into the Falkland War), and Joseph-Michel Frangois reform...
...It thoroughly detailed confronted by anti-abortion protesters is real...
...Shut it down...
...We have ignored this to our peril, willfully denya school for thugs and war criminals...
...Congressman resolutely...
...the war's most notorious acts: Nineteen of the twenty-seven 1. Gotta have it...
...ing the resource implications of the use of any health-care The only way the Cristiani government will fully implement treatments-from diagnostic technologies to pharmaceuticals the UN-sponsored peace accord and the recommendations of to surgeries...
...Americans as a people are irrevocably ciary...
...Ruben territory or new state could prohibit slavery even if it voted to Zamora of the opposition Convergencia party agreed and predo so...
...lic health measures than virtually any other industrialized country...
...even peaceful protest...
...Portland, Me...
...it must not be atrocities in Salvador's twelve-year-long civil war were comheld hostage even to the anguish of women seeking "reproductive mitted by both sides, but the vast majority were perpetrated services...
...and of the twelve of- lack any sort of insurance against excessive health costs...
...We have never applaudPatrick Jordan 30 ed Operation Rescue's methods of protest, but in destroying whatever organizational structure might have impeded the lawless actions of some individuals, has this proSTAFF choice strategy really been wise...
...be resolved by an edict from Washington...
...The results-medical-care prices rising more than the truth commission-the only way Salvador will turn from twice as fast as the general inflation rate...
...Opposition to TRUTH & ITS CONSEQUENCES abortion is what this law is meant to curb...
...Civil suits Working-class War: Murray Polner 29 brought by abortion clinics and others that asked and got confiscatory damages have Thomas Merton-Spiritual Master: effectively bankrupted groups such as Operation Rescue...
...You and the colleagues you are Medicaid waiver experiment, Canada's limits on specialty care working with are now very close to your May training programs, and Great Britain's prohibition of certain deadline for presenting a health-care reform pro- procedures on certain patients all attempt to do-allocate care posal...
...move him from office...
...Waste and fraud contribute to these costs, but the crux of the HEALTH CARE PRIORITIES problem lies elsewhere, in the simple truth that we can do more than we can afford...
...Gunn has The UN report's aftershocks were sudden and intense...
...Was the administration willfully blind or worse...
...and poorer pubthere is no alternative...
...The bill's disregard for constitutionThe Children of Men: Molly Finn 26 al guarantees of free speech and assembly should make every prochoice civil liberThe Churching of America 1776-1990: tarian blush...
...ing reproductive health services...
...Health care is a commodity...
...Although the murder of Dr...
...New York, N.Y...
...The bill, designed to make the "obstruction" of clinic entrances a federal felony, is worded so broadly Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is yet aimed so specifically at anti-abortion protesters as to threaten the repression of published biweekly except Christmas/New Year's...
...the equivalents of a good wine, a good watch, an Ivy League education, or a guest bedroom...
...A funny thing hapAs you sort through these stories and proposals, attempt- pened to our archetypal family doctor-he specialized in obing to paste together a comprehensive proposal, please admit stetrics and gynecology, joined a physicians' group, hired a Commonweal 23 April 1993: 5...
...historical promise of equality, and the protection of life and Torcelli plans to review all relevant testimony from the period liberty, for all...
...total health-care ex"madness to hope"-is for Washington to make it clear that penses of over $3,600 per person in the U.S...
...People of good First Amendment rights, since they outlaw only those acts that will might rightly fear that 1.5 million abortions a year, whether are the expression of an identifiable point of view...
...Or, as this law proposes for those confronted by Commonweal, 15 Dutch St...
...Those trative overhead...
...CONTENTS COMMONWEAL Volume CXX, Number 8 Correspondence 2 Editorials 3 An open letter: Christopher F. Koller 5 Public housing can work: J.S...
...Display advertising seeking abortion...
...It have to know what you want before you can decide what you was U.S.-trained Salvadoran officers who perpetrated most of can give away...
...of the We are one of the very few industrialized societies that does five officers cited for the 1980 murder of four U.S...
...Indeed, with each passing year the much-remarked-upon par- The UN commission, however, got a better hearing from the allel between Roe v. Wade and the notorious Dred Scott deci- Salvadoran church, from opposition political leaders, and from sion (1857) becomes more poignant...
...ments...
...is marked by excessive complexity...
...The Access bill is precisely targeted...
...In 1990, experience with providers and patients as a manager for a staff a congressional commission headed by Moakley specifically model health maintenance organization (yes, I am adminiscalled for the reform of the Salvadoran justice system...
...Because had a budget of $4.2 million and trained 2,000 Central and Latin our resources are limited, provision and financing are inextriAmerican soldiers...
...10038...
...At the same time, radical anti-abortion activists must recognize Poetry: Rosemary Deen that each act of violence or harassment only adds to the persuasiveness of the case Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Isn't the result likely to be more anarchy, not any moveAssociate Editor: Paul Baumann ment toward the resolution of this tortuous issue...
...Last year that school-whose grad- preventable conditions, and in an impoverished social spirit...
...the many malefactors are structured to proliferate needs-the fear of a missed diag(bureaucratic insurers, gouging pharmaceutical manufacturers, nosis and the hope of a miracle cure are powerful trump cards greedy physicians, overdemanding patients, meddling govern- that continuously raise the ante of health care...
...In opponent of Dred Scott, characterized the moral and political Washington, the Clinton administration froze military assistance bankruptcy of the Court's decision: "That if any one man, choose to El Salvador until reform of the army is implemented...
...made by those who say that any restriction of abortion represents an "undue burStaff: Harriette Balsky, Carmen Alava, den" placed on women exercising what our highest court says is a constitutional Pamela Quatse right...
...The parallel here is legal, Commonweal 23 April 1993: not moral or emotional...
...It follows that in the best and fairest of sysAN OPEN LETTER tems, everybody cannot have everything...
...anti-abortion protesters, should soldiers or sailors be entitled to civil damages for "emotional distress" caused by antimilitary protesters...
...managed competition...
...As a society this is FOUR THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND easier to ignore then to address...
...Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor The Freedom of Access bill highlights the dangers to liberty courted by the unPublisher: Edward S. Skillin restrained political ambition the abortion question generates...
...It means some parts of health care must be considered nonessential-wants, not needs...
...citizens...
...The bill's criminal and civil penalities, up to three years in jail for previous offenders and treble damages for those expe- The unflinching report of the UN Commission on war crimes riencing pain and suffering, are further efforts to "chill" polit- in El Salvador, "From Madness to Hope," was the word El ical speech...
...pay-or-play...
...it is a tragedy...
...Slavery, he recognized, was provided $6 billion in economic and military aid to El Salvador a historical fact that mere reason or moral exhortation could during the war...
...to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object...
...Whoever, the practice is guaranteed by the highest court or the highest with intent to prevent or discourage any person from obtain- legislature, is no less a darkening of the human spirit...
...David Gunn's senseless murder David O'Connell 22 outside an abortion clinic in Florida, some prochoice groups are eager to link mainstream anti-abortion sentiment to the actions of extremists...
...tematic throughout, the course of the war...
...milficers accused of responsibility for the 1981 Mazote massacre, lions more are poorly insured...
...Cristiani stalled a further purge of the military...
...Unilateral federal Suffice it to say, the proposed statute, which punishes anti- decisions ignore the deeply held convictions of too many citiabortion obstruction of clinics but specifically exempts any ob- zens...
...plans to review the Bush adminisSimilarly, in a country as vast and varied as this, no ques- tration's handling of the investigation into the 1989 murders at tion as morally complex and socially divisive as abortion can the Jesuit University...
...President Alfredo Cristiani and his rightclaim anything like a popular majority...
...as a result, the convicted murderers of the Jesuits er, think the Court erroneous in its discovery of an ostensible were set free...
...Telephone: (212) 732-0800...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to a military base a federal felony...
...Health-care services in the U.S...
...I ask you to consider the following consistently stonewalled the administration and led it by the four principles for health-care reform...
...Still, in the aftermath of Dr...
...Army School of the Americas stantly-in sick kids who can't learn, in acutely ill patients with at Fort Benning, Georgia...
...Good health care reform must foster the recognition that our Dear Hillary, resources to pay for health care are limited...
...It must-as Oregon's Greetings...
...Substantive aid to the als...
...A truth commission is also needed in Washington...
...abortion practice a And the head of the Supreme Court, refusing to comply with moral travesty at least partly analogous to the nation's long de- UN recommendations to step down, said only God could renial of constitutional protections to blacks...
...alysts, pundits, insurance executives, and others have given you 3. Keep it simple...
...What is the Army running at Fort Benning, cably linked...
Vol. 120 • April 1993 • No. 8
