ED RHEE Susan Fogel addresses health
care issues during Tuesday’s Roe v. Wade lecture, sponsored by the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women.
By Emily Taylor-Mortorff
Daily Bruin Contributor
A woman’s right to choose is in serious jeopardy and must
be protected, Los Angeles attorney and women’s rights
activist Susan Fogel said before a largely female audience during
Tuesday’s lecture, “Roe v. Wade: Who Cares
Anymore?”
Her visit to the UCLA Center for the Study of Women fell on the
same day as the 29th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling of Roe
v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.
“Abortion is an issue that will never go away as long as
women have bodies,” said Women’s Studies program chair
and law professor Christine Littleton.
Because most people think that overturning the 1973 Supreme
Court decision is unthinkable and unlikely, they have begun to take
the right to choose for granted, Fogel said.
Among those who publically care about the abortion issue are the
12,000 people that gathered at a Roe v. Wade commemorative mass
earlier this week, she said.
On the opposite side of the argument is President Bush, who
declared Sunday the National Sanctity of Life Day and said Saturday
that “unborn children should be welcomed in life and
protected in law.”
The right to have an abortion, as well as other reproductive
health care rights, are not only political but health care issues
as well, Fogel said.
As a political issue, she said, a woman’s right to choose
is particularly threatened by the current administration and the
potential that a new Supreme Court justice could be appointed by an
outwardly anti-abortion president.
“It is critically important to keep the issue of abortion
alive as long as there are legislators trying to get rid of
it,” she said.
According to Fogel, the passing of the Hyde Amendment of 1978
““ which states that Medicaid will only cover abortions
resulting from rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother
““ has turned abortion into a class issue, because women who
cannot afford abortions have no outside source of funding.
“Rich women get abortions and poor woman
don’t,” Fogel said, adding that good health care should
be available to all women, regardless of race, social standing or
creed.
She also cited religion, specifically the Catholic Church, as a
major factor in determining the future of women’s health care
because the Church ““ which believes it is amoral to take the
life of an unborn child ““ runs three out of six of the
largest hospital systems and controls nearly $30 billion of health
care funds, giving it “enormous political power.”
The predominance of Catholic hospitals is making it harder to
find a safe and affordable place to have an abortion, Fogel
said.
The anti-gag rule of the Balanced Budget Act of 1996 prohibited
hospitals and doctors from withholding information regarding
alternative forms of treatments, Fogel said.
But the Catholic Health Association was granted exemption for
procedures that violate religious beliefs, thereby allowing doctors
to withhold information, even when it could potentially save a
life.
“Every hospital does blood transfusions,” Fogel
said. “Let them make sure women get what they
need.”
Fogel’s great grandmother, who died at age 32 while trying
to self-abort her seventh child, is the perfect poster girl for
what would happen if abortion was no longer legal, Fogel said.
Several people in the audience concurred with Fogel’s
statements and said improvements must be made.
“There are two things that could radically change health
care worldwide,” said Heather Tindall, a second-year graduate
student at the School of Public Health. “They are: one,
access to clean water, and two, family planning.”