xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CHOICE-NET REPORT For Week ending February 5, 1994 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CHOICE-NET REPORT is a weekly update on reproductive rights issues distributed through email, Women's Wire, gopher.well..sf.ca.us, Usenet groups alt.activism, talk.abortion, soc.women, and other Internet channels. Please reprint, distribute and TAKE ACTION. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx PENNSYLVANIA BEGINS ENFORCING CASEY RESTRICTIONS The appeals process was finally exhausted on Feb. 4, 1994 and the state of Pennsylvania will now be allowed to place major obstacles between women and their access to abortion. Teenagers must now get parental consent or a judicial bypass. All women must listen to a state-mandated lecture and then wait an additional 24 hours, a prohibitively expensive proposition for poor women who must travel long distances to receive an abortion. Pro-choice advocates worry that this will lead to an increase in illegal abortions for teens and more dangerous late-term abortions for adult women. HEALTH CARE REFORM...THE NUMBERS The Clinton plan will need 60 votes to prevent a filibuster in the Senate. During the budget debate, the President could muster only 49, so this will not be easy. Clinton needs all the Democrats plus 10 Republicans. To get them, Clinton will need a strong endorsement from the Senate Finance Committee. To get that, Clinton will need a NAFTA-style miracle. Possible Republican swing votes are: Packwood, Durenberger, Chafee, Danforth, and Boren. Can Finance Committee chair Sen. Moynihan craft a compromise that will allow these folks to sign-on? Let's hope so. Will it include comprehensive reproductive health care? Only if YOU DEMAND IT! Write Sen. Patrick Moynihan TODAY and remind him that health care reform must include women's health. Women's health is not a bargaining chip. CATHOLIC CHURCH LOBBY HEATS UP According to the Council of Catholic Bishops, Congress should be receiving about 18 million postcards this week urging them to keep abortion out of health care reform. If you want Congress to hear a different point of view, you might want to send a few postcards and letters of your own. MORE NUMBERS Representative Jim Cooper, co author of the Cooper/Breaux bill, a no-reform health care proposal, has already benefited from his opposition to the Clinton plan. In the first six months of 1993, health and insurance executives and their families contributed $162,956 to Cooper's campaign war chest. Coincidence? Keep an eye on the campaign contributions for the last 6 months of 93 and first six months of 94. BIZARRE HEALTH CARE QUOTE OF THE WEEK From James Inhofe, (R-OK): "About 60 percent of the medical treatment in this country really isn't needed." Really?. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE ALREADY If you don't know who your representative is, call the phone number below and ask. Then leave a message for them AND write a letter. It really is up to you. Write to: The Honorable (First & Last Name), House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: 202-225-3121 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Call the Legislative Status Office at 202-225-1772 to find out hearing dates and bill status. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DID YOU WRITE YOUR SENATOR TODAY? These people are making decisions about your health. If they don't hear from you they think you don't care about reproductive health care. Call up and let them know you are watching. Remind them that it's not universal if women aren't covered. Senate Finance Committee Chair--Daniel Moynihan (D-NY) Senate Finance Committee Members--Democrat: Max Baucus (MT), David Boren (OK) Bill Bradley (NJ), George Mitchell (ME), David Pryor (AR), Donald Riegle (MI), John Rockefeller (WV), Thomas Daschle (SD), John Breaux (LA), Kent Conrad (ND). Republicans: Bob Packwood (OR), Robert Dole (KS), William Roth (DE), John Danforth (MO), John Chafee (RI), Dave Durenberger (MN), Charles Grassley (IA), Orrin Hatch (UT), Malcolm Wallop (WY). Senate Labor & Human Resources Committee Chair--Edward Kennedy (D-MA) Senate Labor & Human Resources Members--Democrat: Claiborne Pell (RI), Howard Metzenbaum (OH), Christopher Dodd (CT), Paul Simon (IL), Tom Harkin (IA), Barbara Mikulski (MD), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Paul Wellstone (MN), Harris Wofford (PA). Republicans: Nancy Kassebaum (KS), James Jeffords (VT), Dan Coats (IN), Judd Gregg (NH), Strom Thurmond (SC), Orrin Hatch (UT)< Dave Durenberger (MN). Write to: The Honorable (First & Last), United States Senate, Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-3121. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx STATISTICS Following are the most recent statistics available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, released Thursday, January 27, 1994. The number of legal abortions in the United States in 1991 declined 2.8 percent from the previous year. In 1991, There were 1,388,937 legal, induced abortions reported. Of those, 52 percent were performed during the first eight weeks of pregnancy and 89 percent were within the first 12 weeks. About 8 percent of women went to another state to have their abortion. Almost 80 percent of women obtaining legal abortions were unmarried. Women aged 25 or older accounted for 44.8 percent of reported abortions, while 34.2 percent were among women aged 20 to 24, and 21 percent involved women aged 19 or younger. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Information Sources: California Abortion Rights Action League-North, Alan Guttmacher Institute, Reproductive Freedom News, various Congresspersons, various newspapers, C-Span, CNN, AP, and UPI. Editor: Kathy Watkins, Administrative Director, CARAL-North If you wish to be added or deleted from the email distribution list, please email: dtv@well.sf.ca.us .