Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Mon, Oct 12 1992 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 04:44:58 EDT Message-ID: 10-12 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Oct. 12, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Monday morning in USA TODAY: Birth control, Holidays, South Africa. TODAY'S DEBATE - "MORNING-AFTER" PILL: USA TODAY'S OPINION: Researchers long have sought a "morning after" pill that could make birth control more safe and effective than it is today. Now, a study from Scotland offers a hot, new lead. But don't expect to see it pursued in the USA. Abortion opponents won't allow it. The study, announced last week, tested small doses of RU-486, the controversial French abortion drug, on 402 women. The result: No pregnancies. The drug caused fewer side effects than ... morning-after pills available from doctors today. If tested and eventually sold here, RU-486 might save women from later abortions and from running gantlets of screaming, sign-waving protesters. Doctors in several European countries already use the drug in larger doses to induce abortion, an alternative to surgery. Relatively safe, simple and cheap, RU-486 also holds promise as a treatment for ulcers, endometriosis and breast cancer, which one in 10 women develop. Yet those who oppose abortion not only object to its use; they object to testing. ... So far, they've prevailed. A hostile attitude from the Bush administration and threats of suits, protests and boycotts from abortion opponents have persuaded the pill's French manufacturer not to submit it for U.S. testing. The result is both unwise and unfair. ... Rejecting testing denies women in the USA an option they should have. It also throws away a chance to make abortion choices more private, perhaps cooling the controversy. As the election nears, Bush would be wise to welcome testing, as Democrat Bill Clinton already has. Testing RU-486 is a prescription for individual rights and common sense. OTHER VIEW: RACHEL MACNAIR, president of Feminists for Life of America, Kansas City, Mo.: Remember, Mike Tyson regarded his rape charge as not serious, since there were no broken bones or black eyes; that he might inflict a pregnancy didn't faze him. But outright rape is only the extreme. In a survey of college women, 15% said they had had unwanted sex due to emotional pressure. Unwanted sex is the most efficient producer of unwanted pregnancy. All pregnancy-prevention methods (except abstinence) require sensitive, equal relationships. Men's exploitative sexual attitudes sabotage effective methods. Solution? Women can induce miscarriages! ... For chemically induced miscarriages in France, women undergo pelvic exams, blood tests, ultrasound. They take RU-486 and return in two days for an injection of prostaglandin; side effects are awful, but the failure rate drops from 15% to 3%. In a week, if the miscarriage isn't complete, surgical abortion is done. ... Waiting days for induced miscarriage is stressful. ... But what about earlier use, a "morning-after" pill? Only a chance of headaches, nausea and anxiety when the next period is late. ... Miscarriage is a disease. This is intentionally inflicting disease, primarily on perfectly healthy women. Surgery is quicker. And having a tiny human body come out at home - after an anxious wait - isn't a price men pay for sex. Some women insist abortion was the right decision but say it was painful and humiliating. This won't change with drugs, but only when it's not acceptable for omen to feel it necessary to do something painful and humiliating. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON COLUMBUS DAY CELEBRATED AS HOLIDAY: PITTSBURGH, Pa., Cindy Judd Hill, 66, retired music teacher: It's like everything else - there's an upside and a downside. It's great he discovered this land, but what happened to the American Indians was unconscionable. The operating principle was conquest. Some tribes that had not heard of Christianity had more ethics. MARSHFIELD, Wis., Michele Wojciehoski, 27, teacher: Yes. Students need to realize the importance of people who have made great gains and done things for our country. It's important because Native Americans and Europeans joined forces and became a unit. DALLAS, Texas, Dan Paddock, 17, student: We certainly haven't been talking about it in school in the last couple of days, but I was taught that Columbus was the original discoverer of America, so I do believe that it should be celebrated as a holiday. ATLANTA, Ga., Sheila Turner, 31, photographer: Not as a national holiday. I find what happened in Haiti hard to swallow. Columbus was trying to do the right thing, but in finding the New World, the Spaniards turned a peaceful people into slaves. When they didn't produce gold, they slaughtered them. LA CANADA, Calif., Aldo Saab, 45, company president: Absolutely, it should be celebrated. Christopher Columbus discovered this continent despite what all the people say about him. He's still the godfather of the USA. If it were not for European intervention, we would be a Third World nation. TOPIC - SOUTH AFRICA: Edward Perkins, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was interviewed by USA TODAY's Lee Michael Katz. ARE WHITE STILL CONSIDERED THE ELITE IN SOUTH AFRICAN CULTURE? Yes. There is a large residue of that. But, quite frankly, that's not what I'm concerned about. I don't think that we can say to whites: "You have to love blacks." And you can't say to blacks: "You have to love whites." But there is an inevitability which throws black South Africans together with the others. Both groups are wedded to the land. They've got to make it work. They don't have a choice. WHAT KIND OF MULTIRACIAL GOVERNMENT WOULD THE USA LIKE TO SEE? One that endorses the concept that all people have the right to choose how they want to be governed. When I was there, we called it one person, one vote. And they need a constitution which permits the existence of equality of all the races. WHEN COULD THIS HAPPEN? It can happen in 1994 in my judgment. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM