[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5774-S5775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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             A WEEKEND WITHOUT WAR OVER THE ABORTION ISSUE

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, the New York Times carried a story 
the other day about people in Wisconsin from the pro-life and pro-
choice side of the abortion issues, to use the names each side uses, 
meeting together to talk about what can be done in a constructive way 
on the issue of abortion.
  About 100 people met at this meeting.
  I commend them for doing it.
  This is a meeting that I or some other Member of the Senate should 
have called a long time ago.
  I remember when Cardinal Bernardin, the Roman Catholic prelate in the 
Chicago area, said that people of sincerity on both sides ought to be 
meeting and trying to work together on a common agenda.
  For example, we know that girls and boys who drop out of high school 
are much more likely to be involved in teenage pregnancies. And a high 
percentage of those end in abortions.
  If we have programs to encourage people to stay in high school, we 
are going to have fewer abortions.
  That may not be as emotionally satisfying as carrying a picket sign 
or haranguing someone, but it does infinitely more constructive good 
and it is something that both sides could agree upon.
  I applaud the leaders, Mary Jacksteit and Sister Adrienne Kaufmann, 
for what they are doing.

[[Page S5775]]

  I ask that the New York Times article be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

             A Weekend Without War Over the Abortion Issue

       Madison, WI.--In workshops and seminars, 100 people from 
     both sides in the fight over abortion met here this weekend 
     to talk about their beliefs without proselytizing or 
     condemning each other.
       At its first national conference, which ended today at the 
     University of Wisconsin, a group known as the Common Ground 
     Network for Life and Choice brought together community 
     organizers, members of the clergy, writers and academics in 
     an effort to defuse the rancor that often colors the abortion 
     debate.
       ``Common Ground is trying to maintain a civil environment 
     in which people can discuss the issues,'' said Mary 
     Jacksteit, a former labor lawyer who co-founded the 
     organization in Washington in 1993. ``This is the place for 
     light instead of heat.''
       The aim, Ms. Jacksteit said, is to ease the dispute over 
     abortion and find points of commonalty that can be put into 
     practice on a local level.
       Critics say Common Ground members risk compromising their 
     beliefs by fraternizing with their opponents. But Ms. 
     Jacksteit said the group's focus was not necessarily on 
     abortion.
       Rather than developing a middle position, the organization 
     favors exploring issues that can have a cause and effect 
     bearing on abortion--like teen-age pregnancy, birth control, 
     adoption and sexual responsibility.
       Ms. Jacksteit and the group's other founder, Adrienne 
     Kaufmann, a Benedictine nun, refrain from labeling themselves 
     and decline to be pinned down on the beliefs.
       ``Neither one of us have been either pro-life or pro-choice 
     activists,'' sister Kaufmann said. ``We do not have a hidden 
     agenda.''
       Many participants in the conference identified their 
     position only by attaching colored stickers to their name 
     tags, a green dot indicating support of abortion rights, a 
     blue dot indicating opposition. One-third had blue dots, one-
     third had green dots and one-third had no sticker.
       In a Friday workshop, groups of participants sat knee to 
     knee in a circle of chairs, Planned Parenthood board members 
     beside Operation Rescue organizers, a Baptist minister who 
     supports abortion rights beside someone long active in social 
     issues who opposes abortion.
       ``When President Clinton vetoed the late-term abortion 
     bill, I was pleased,'' said the Mel Taylor, a Baptist pastor 
     for Denver and a supporter of abortion rights. ``But I was 
     also very aware of how my friends on the other side were 
     grieving. What I can't do anymore is gloat.''
       For the participants, a willingness to engage in dialogue 
     did not mean conceding their beliefs.
       ``I don't feel like I have to give an inch at all,'' said 
     Loretto Wagner, a veteran abortion opponent who started the 
     Common Ground chapter in St. Louis. ``To learn to trust 
     people does not demand any kind of compromise. But I don't 
     have to stand on my principles with my chin thrust out in 
     confrontation. The whole concept of Common Ground involves 
     recognizing our similarities rather than our differences, and 
     not coercing or forcing our agenda on someone.''
       With 1,500 members in 21 states, Common Ground has tried 
     such bridge-building in a number of communities, Ms. 
     Jacksteit said. In Buffalo, Common Ground works with schools 
     to combat teen-age pregnancy. In St. Louis, an abortion 
     clinic gives prenatal care to women who decide not to 
     terminate a pregnancy and refers them to a crisis pregnancy 
     center run by opponents of abortion. These services were 
     arranged by the directors of the clinic and the crisis 
     center, who are members of Common Ground.
       In 1995, after the announcement that two abortion clinics 
     would be built in Davenport, Iowa, Common Ground members 
     talked about ways to reduce the potential for violence.
       In another workshop on Friday, participants critiqued their 
     own sides in the abortion conflict.
       ``I think it's possible to disagree with somebody without 
     calling them a baby killer or believing they are monsters of 
     fiends,'' said Frederica Mathewes-Green, the author of ``Real 
     Choices'' and an abortion opponent. The slogan ``It's a 
     baby,'' popularized by abortion opponents, only deadlocks the 
     debate, Ms. Mathewes-Green said. It perpetuates the misbelief 
     that women and babies are on opposite sides of the issues, 
     she added, and alienates women who face unplanned 
     pregnancies.
       Conversely, the slogan ``It's a woman's choice'' 
     trivializes the death of the fetus, the author Naomi Wolf 
     told participants at the Friday workshop. The death of the 
     fetus has become ``the blind spot'' of the abortion-rights 
     movement, said Ms. Wolf, who supports abortion rights and who 
     last fall condemned the oratory of the abortion-rights 
     movement in an essay in The New Republic.
       ``I think there is a great hunger in America for a 
     discussion on this issue,'' she added. Most Americans ``want 
     to preserve abortion as a legal right, but condemn it as a 
     moral iniquity.''
       Many Common Ground members said they were viewed with 
     suspicion not by their adversaries but by their allies. They 
     said their willingness to sit down and listen to the enemy 
     was seen as a form of betrayal.
       The apparent mistrust is not a surprise to Sister Kaufmann.
       ``We live in an adversarial society,'' she said. ``To be in 
     a non-contentious conversation with someone is viewed as 
     strange behavior.''

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