03-26-1995 Women of Achievement and Herstory

    Here are excerpts from the Supreme Court's abortion decision of
1992 which upheld Roe v Wade. The following is from the main
opinion, written by justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M
Kennedy and David H. Souter:
    "...We are led to conclude this: the essential holding of Roe v
Wade should be retained and once again reaffirmed. ...It must be
stated at the outset and with clarity that Roe's essential holding, the
holding we reaffirm, has 3 parts:
    "First is a recognition of the right of the woman to choose to
have an abortion before viability and to obtain it without undue
interference from the state...
    "Second is a confirmation of the state's power to restrict
abortions after fetal viability, if the law contains exceptions for
pregnancies which endanger a woman's life or health.
    "And third is the principle that the state has legitimate interests
from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the health of the
woman and the life of the fetus that MAY BECOME a child. (emphasis
mine)
    "It is a promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of
personal liberty which the government may not enter. We have
indicated this principle before.
    "It is settled now, as it was when the court heard arguments in
Roe v Wade, that the Constitution places limits on a state's right to
interfere with a person's most basic decisions about family and
parenthood...
    "Men and women of good conscience can disagree, and we
suppose some always shall disagree, about the profound moral and
spiritual implications of terminating a pregnancy, even in its earliest
stage. Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most
basic principles of morality, but that cannot control our decision. Our
obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own
moral code..."

03-26 Anniversaries ...............................................

      B. 03-26-1819, Louise Otto, author and founder of the German
feminist movement.

      B. 03-26-1930, Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to be
appointed an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
was an Arizona lawyer and judge. She served in the state Senate
from 1969 until 1974, becoming majority leader -- the first woman to
hold such a position.  Elected an Arizona Superior Court judge 1974,
appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals 1979.  President Ronald
Reagan, under great pressure from women's groups as well as his
own party, appointed O'Connor and she was sworn in 09-25-81.
Expected to be a strict Republican right-winger and seen as the
deciding anti-choice vote, she amazed everyone by being the deciding
vote to UPHOLD a woman's right to choose and confirm that an
embryo or fetus is NOT a child.

      Event 03-26-1943, Second Lieutenant Elsie Ott of the Army
Nurse Corps receives the first air medal for meritorious achievement
ever given to a woman.

      B. 03-26-1944, Diana Ross, vocalist, actor, lead singer with the
group The Supremes during the 1960's, did solo work, and won an
Academy Award nomination for her work in _The Lady Sings the
Blues_.

      Event 03-26-1985, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a lower
court decision that an Oklahoma law allowing a teacher's firing for
speaking on gay rights is unconstitutional.

Quotes du jour ...............................................

      "I don't claim that women are wiser or better than men, but I
can tell you that having women in positions of power does make a
difference in what gets tended to and what doesn't.
      "If you ever read Supreme Court arguments, you will
occasionally notice that Sandra Day O'Connor, no one's idea of a
bomb-throwing feminist, asks questions different than those of her
male colleagues.  Just because she has a different perspective."
            -- Molly Ivins in her syndicated column 02-13-1993.


(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use.