OPINION Page 6 The Michigan Daily w Courts dispute privacy laws without recognizing women's reproductive rights Roe is not the feminist answer IN 1973, the Supreme Court handed Some of these interpretations ously affirming the state's interest in Planned Parenthood of Missouri v. tant not to pretend that Roe is the down what has been considered a stem from a 1942 Court decision in "protecting potential life." More- Danforth were decided by the Court.. perfect decision. "landmark" decision in the Roe v. Skinner v. Oklahoma which struck over, the Court decision to strike Most courts in this country ap- Pro-choice advocates must push Wade case. In the public eye; this down a state law allowing court-or- down the Texas statute which made proached the Roe, Doe and Planned the legal system to deal with rela- case in essence legalized as well as dered sterilization. The majority it a crime "to procure, to attempt to Parenthood decisions on the issue of tionships between individuals that affirmed a woman's right to make opinion proclaimed: "We are dealing perform or to furnish the means to "viability" of the fetus. Once states don't necessarily fall under a the decision (along with her doctor) here with legislation which involves procure" an abortion, established its established a vague notion of life "contract." The contract most exclu- to have an abortion. Some have one of the basic civil right of man. majority ruling under the "zone of outside the womb, they were able to sive of women in this country is the viewed Roe v. Wade as recognition Marriage and procreation are funda- privacy" created by the due process show compelling interest in protect- Constitution. by the "Supreme Law of the Land" mental to the very existence and clause of the 14th Amendment. (The ing the "life" of both woman and The merits of the Roe case were of a woman's right to her body. survival of the race" (New Mexico Journal of Legal Medicine, Vol. 4, child (in most cases, the "unborn" decided upon a body of literature .__was considered first). Attempts to which still guarantees rights to lib- But Roe is not a case which is sabotage Roe v. Wade by individual erty, justice, etc., to men but denies based upon any idea of a woman's The contract most exclusive of women in this states ranged from narrowing the pe- them categorically to woman. This "fundamental right" to protect her country is the Constitution.' riod during which abortion was is where Roe looses its "viability," body and to decide what's going to actually legal, to restricting state for viability is not a matter of the be done with it. Rather, the Court's monies to those institutions which fetus alone. decision focuses more upon protec- Law Review, Winter 1987, 119; No. 3, 1983, 273). performed abortions on a regular ba- The Supreme Court, as the tion of an individual from state in- emphasis added). In other words, Blackmun went so far as to argue sis. The issue of state funding first "higher" model for our judicial sys- tervention in private matters. The there is little legislation left to pro- that the 14th or 9th Amendments' arose in 1977 in the Maher v. Roe tem, needs to be coerced into finally ruling opinion is vaguely sex-spe- tect the woman who finds herself guarantee of freedom from state in- case, laying the ground work for making a decision to "decide" on is- cific. pregnant outside of marriage con- tervention and people's rights was legislation against Medicaid funded sues of the body and people's right tracts - for it is solely through this broad enough to encompass a abortions in many states, including to treatment. Unfortunately, the The opinion in Roe v. Wade is contract that women become visible woman's right to terminate her Michigan's Proposal A. Webster case currently before the filled with conservative interpreta- in the Constitution. pregnancy. In all reality, the U.S. Much of the debate about Roe v. Supreme Court is another example tions of the Constitution that deal Constitution does not pretend to be Wade and subsequent Court decision of the emphasis on state interest in- with a woman's "right to choose" in To complicate matters, the word- in'clusive of women, let alone their has happened behind the closed doors stead of a woman's right to choose. terms of constitutional standards of ing of Justice Blackmun's majority right to control or protect, unless of the legal system. What reaches To make a decision in which a privacy, and the contract established opinion in Roe v. Wade included with a gun, both body and mind. the media is the hype and sensation- woman is denied a right to treat her between "man and wife" (not woman contradictory concepts like the de- Subsequent mayhem in the lower alism of anti-abortion advocates, body as she likes is to legislate, and alone, or even woman and man, but termination of "viability" of the fe- courts ensued after Roe and its com- rather than the facts of the case it- more specifically, legislate against woman as his wife) in marriage. tus by physicians, while simultane- panion cases, Doe v. Bolton and self. Therefore, it is vitally impor-' the "body" of a woman. 0 0 Gargoyle: its not funny I PICK A page, any page, and be of- fended. When you thought it couldn't be done the Gargoyle magazine out-did itself this year in offensiveness. Its authors seem to believe that racist, sexist, and ho- mophobic drawings and "articles" are not only funny, but worthy of print and the price of two dollars an issue. Even if you didn't buy a copy, you had to walk past Gargoyle staffers waving the offensive neon- green cover on the Diag. The cover portrays a white man, strangling a Black child with a snake. The cap- tion is "FEAR." The image is remi- niscent of the long history of lynch- ings. It is meant to evoke fear and implies that the subjugation of peo- ple of color is funny. Clearly the editors of the Gargoyle find it funny since the rest of the magazine is full of cartoons, advertisements and articles which at- tack many racial groups and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Among the supposedly comical pages are "News Briefs" portraying an "no armed drummer" as the latest recipient of "Affirmative Action" - trivializing both the struggles of differently-abled students at the Uni- versity and the aims of Affirmative Action; an advertisement showing a nude woman in a hammock, ac- companied by references to bondage; a drawing of a man who would "kill for a lay", further perpetuating vio- lence against women; and one of a Black child saying "I kill people", stereotyping Blacks as murderers. A cartoon by "Dick Brown" por- trays sex between gay men as vio- lent and degrading. Other cartoons portray Native Americans as igno- rant and gullible, and Asians as bar- baric and uncivilized. Not only did the editors print this last cartoon, but they even captioned it "offensive stereotype", indicating that they were well aware of its intent and effect - which is the concluding reason why the Gargoyle is so insidious. Its intent is to find "humor" in the "FEAR" of oppressed people. By depicting the violence against op- pressed people as a fit subject for light humor, the Gargoyle's effect is to minimize the seriousness of the violence, and to perpetuate the racism, sexism and heterosexism which propagate the violence. Issue Daily politics I AN ARTICLE entitled, "The Year But this isn't the only instance of Writing Dangerously," The De- where journalism that editorializes troit News (4/19/89) mentioned the against human rights abuses is violent reprisals taken against the marginalized by mainstream media. Daily for editorially supporting In the late 1960's, Wayne State Palestinian self-determination. These University's student newspaper, The include a brick with a threatening South End, took a progressive stance message thrown through an editor's on issues including racism, the bedroom window.and vandalism of Vietnam War, and the P.L.O. In re- the Student Publications Building. sponse, Wayne State President Keast began to take action against the pa- One form of retaliation the News per. The Detroit Free Press and The neglected to mention, though, is the Detroit News endorsed Keast's at- neglect of the mainstream media to tacks. (Detroit: I Do Mind Dying, recognize why such attacks have Chap. 3) been waged against the Daily - be- The patronizing tone the News ' cause of its editorial stance on uses implies that what the Daily Palestinian human rights. The needs is a faculty-advisor. This is News' article is itself an excellent especially timely when it is consid- example of this. ered together with the subtle threats The News attributes the violent by President Duderstadt last semester attacks to the Daily being "run by a to censure students' voices in the bunch of kids" who aren't "playing Daily. This action would effectively the game according to the rules of shut down the Daily as a student-run good journalism," rather than to the newspaper, ending almost a century Daily's editorial stances. Supporting of student-editorial freedom. And human rights in the occupied such freedom fosters exactly the kind territories and elsewhere, implies the of critical, intelligent thinking that News, constitutes proof of intellec- is a hallmark of the kind of "good" tual immaturity and journalistic in- journalism the News claims to stand competence. fox. Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan Vol. XCIX, No. 1-S 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons, signed arces, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion Of the Daily.