posted on March 19, 2001 08:44:20 AM
How we spent our cold winter months.--Adele
'THANKS FOR NOTHING'
Monday, March 19,
2001
BY GREG BURTON
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
OK, so they lost their sympathetic ear in the White House. They
barely staved off the Utah Legislature's annual attempt to erase sex
education -- "See no sex. Speak no sex. Have no sex."
And they failed once again to persuade the majority of the state's male,
Republican lawmakers to extend prescription coverage for birth control
to all insured women.
But advocates for reproductive rights salvaged their sense of humor. In
honor of President Bush's immediate overtures against abortion, more
than 300 Utahns have mailed cash donations in Bush's name to Planned
Parenthood of Utah.
"It's a light and clever way of capitalizing on defeat," says Bob Smith, a
former Planned Parenthood trustee from Ogden.
Smith and his wife, Adele, sent $500 to Utah's Planned Parenthood
and then delivered a postcard to the White House thanking the new
president for inspiring the organization's Presidents Day fund-raising
drive, one of Planned Parenthood of Utah's most successful single-issue
fund-raisers.
The national donation drive started as a lark in January when Los
Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison wrote of her plans to celebrate
the holiday with a pro-choice contribution in Bush's name to protest the
president's reimposition of a gag rule that prohibits international aid
groups that receive U.S. funds from speaking out in favor of abortion.
Like a virus, e-mails about Morrison's column spread. National and
local Planned Parenthood groups pounced. Karrie Galloway, president
of the Utah affiliate, signed her name to hundreds of "Dear Friend" letters
with this message: "Since President Bush has given us this lovely 'surprise'
so early in his presidency, I think we should return the favor."
With bright, cheery thank-yous to Bush, the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America has hauled in more than $600,000 since
February. Utahns have sent more than $15,000 to Galloway's office and
the donations keep coming. The Utah figure represents about a tenth of
the estimated total raised so far by the 50 state affiliates.
"Not bad," says Beverley Cooper, spokeswoman for Planned
Parenthood of Utah, an organization typically steeped in post-legislative
depression this time of year.
"It just shows people are really concerned," she says. "What the global
gag rule did is tragically impact international family planning programs. It
scares people and they want to respond."
The quarrel, of course, is louder than any gag rule can quiet.
In response to one Utahn who wrote in disgust about Bush's gag rule,
U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch said he could not morally abide pro-choice
activism. Neither could U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett.
"Their personal moral convictions were that these programs are
wrong," says Rebecca Hyde, who also fired off a note to Bush and a
check to Planned Parenthood of Utah. "Barbara Bush had a better
record on women's issues than her husband or son."
And there's the rub. President Bush's mother, the former first lady,
favors choice in the first trimester of pregnancy. Not to be outdone, the
current first lady, Laura Bush, wasted little time before she, too, offended
pro-lifers. In January, the new first lady said she didn't believe Roe vs.
Wade -- the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established limited abortion
rights -- should be overturned.
So while the donations may irritate the two Presidents Bush, Barbara
and Laura must feel somewhat empathetic toward women such as
Sharon Lingenfelter of Bountiful, who gave $50.
"I would want my daughter to make her own decision," Lingenfelter
says. "I can't say I'm pro-abortion, but I don't feel I have the right to tell
anybody else they should not have an abortion."
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