Foes on Abortion Issue Share Panel to Provide ‘Balanced’ Information

Orange County’s pro-choice and anti-abortion leaders sat shoulder-to-shoulder for the first time last week for “The Politics of Reproduction,” a YWCA-sponsored public forum in Irvine. On the panel, Wendy Lozano of the National Organization for Women, South Orange County, sat sandwiched between ideological foes Barbara McGuiggan of the Right to Life League of Orange County and Mary Curtius of the Pro-Life Political Action Committee of Orange County. Anchoring the panel on either end were moderates Ellen Severoni of California Health Decisions and Cindy Sheinberg of the Coalition Concerned With Adolescent Pregnancy.

Rather than repeating the time-worn debate on abortion or birth control, the idea, sponsors said, was to provide “balanced” information on such topics as what kind of legislation may appear on the state ballot in November and how federal regulations regarding birth control and abortion are being implemented. Panelists also offered opinions on who should pay for abortions or whether schools should give birth control information to students.

After the two-hour forum last Thursday night, which was televised live on Irvine’s local cable channel, Jo Ann Hyslop, associate director of the YWCA--South Orange County, said, “We’re real happy.” Comments from the three-dozen members of the audience were “90% extremely favorable,” she said. All five participants agreed to a repeat panel for students if any high school is interested, she added.

But some who had hoped the gathering might produce some common ground said they were disappointed. Both speakers and members of the audience struggled to restrain their emotions on the highly charged issues. Panel moderator Lee Reinke-Bright, host of “For Women,” a local cable television show, frequently reminded speakers and audience members to stick to the question-and-answer format.

“What I heard was that there was still a lack of information,” said Reinke-Bright, a member of the YWCA’s Women’s Exchange Program, which sponsored Thursday’s forum. Pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates had put forth conflicting statistics claiming that the majority public opinion is on their side. They disagreed over whether family planning clinics “push” abortion and whether or not there is a demand for, or over-supply of, adoptable babies.

When Lozano charged that “women’s reproductive freedom” is being used as a “money-raiser for the right,” a man from the audience countered that abortion clinics are bringing in “tremendous” amounts of money.

Opening speakers Reinke-Bright and Sheinberg had used statistics to describe some of the problems surrounding reproduction:

- In the United States, more than a million teen-age girls become pregnant by accident every year.

- Last year, the United States spent $3.6 billion on services for pregnant adolescents, and Orange County spent an estimated $4.5 million.

- Two-thousand pregnant women last year were denied prenatal care at Orange County Health Department clinics because they didn’t have enough money to pay.

- A quarter of American women have no health insurance.

But the audience’s comments that followed each speaker’s 10-minute talk veered more toward the emotional topics of chastity for unmarried teen-agers, teaching sex education without values and the issue of when life begins.

“There’s not a birth control pill around that can give (a girl) back her reputation,” McGuiggan had told the audience in denouncing premarital “sex for pleasure.”

One woman in the audience waved a pamphlet with photographs of a four-month-old fetus, asking, “Why are we still referring to this as ‘tissue’?” after Lozano had called fertilized egg cells “tissue with human potential”-- and likened them to “cartons of chickens you keep in your refrigerator.”

“There must be a way for us to solve the teen-age pregnancy problem without being sidetracked by the abortion issue,” Curtius said. And Lozano concluded that the main problems, rather than legal, are that “there are so many unwanted pregnancies and so many poor women.”

Severoni said that in contrast to the strong feelings expressed at the forum, most people are relatively ambivalent about reproduction issues. “We need to sit down and discuss where we have common ground. . . . The vast majority of people are in the middle. Most people are confused,” she said.

Television camera operators Kim Ritz, 15, and Jeff Rey, 18, both of Irvine, were the only teen-agers in the audience.

“I’m glad they did it. It’s good to get both sides of the story,” Ritz said. He said he was surprised that no one discussed the issue of supplying birth control through high schools.