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 Post subject: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 2:49 am 
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WASHINGTON - Clashing opinions on abortion are being heard loud and clear in the nation's capital as thousands of people mark the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. (AP, and many others)<p>***No. Roe v. Wade did not "legalize abortion." Abortion was already legal in several jurisdictions, including New York, when the ruling came down. Roe v. Wade recognized that a woman's constitutional privacy rights entitled her to have an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy essentially without restriction. Please, let's fool everyone and get it right tomorrow.***<p>[ January 22, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>


Last edited by Phillip Blanchard on Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 3:20 am 
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I didn't think the Constitution specifically granted any privacy rights.


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 3:40 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Emily Salmon:
I didn't think the Constitution specifically granted any privacy rights.<hr></blockquote><p>The constitution grants relatively few specific rights. The Supreme Court interprets it, and the court interpreted the constitution (specifically the 14th Amendment) as guaranteeing such rights in certain circumstances.<p>Read the Supreme Court decision. Few bother. It's illuminating. Roe v. Wade


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 11:07 am 
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Phil:<p>Thanks for the link to the decision, and the reminder on this one.<p> Our wire editor is diligent at making sure "legalizing abortion" doesn't make it to the rim, which on a busy night could easily get through the five-hole here. And probably has. <p>I think our preferred phrase is "affirmed a woman's right to choose abortion," or some such.<p>It is kind of amazing that, 30 years later, "legalizing abortion" still winds up in Roe vs. Wade stories.<p>But I've been amazed before.<p>[ January 22, 2003: Message edited by: Bumfketeer ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Wed Jan 22, 2003 3:49 pm 
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Thank you for the education.
I am one of three wire editors on our copy desk, and I'm sure I let that one slip right through last night. Very good to know ...


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 12:08 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
I think our preferred phrase is "affirmed a woman's right to choose abortion," or some such.<hr></blockquote><p>Blanp's original point is well-taken. But "affirmed a woman's right to choose abortion" is Planned Parenthood-speak.<p>I vote for "affirmed abortion as a constitutional right." That makes it clear that the federal court was overruling what laws the states had in place at the time. And it does so without politicizing the story.


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 4:19 am 
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How did we do?<p>(Reuters) - Activists on both sides of the abortion debate rallied on Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion. <p>Nope.<p>Rove, during a rare appearance before reporters, said the two measures are part of "the immediate tasks at hand." He stopped short of promising a White House push to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which determined that a woman's constitutional privacy rights entitled her to get an abortion in the first trimester of her pregnancy. (Washington Post)<p>Nicely done.<p>Activists both for and against abortion are staging rallies across the United States to mark the 30th anniversary of a Supreme Court decision legalising terminations. (BBC)<p>Well, the BBC is British and broadcasting.<p>WASHINGTON - Buoyed by rallies, demonstrations and speeches marking 30 years of legalized abortion, participants said they would closely monitor any efforts by the new Republican-controlled Congress and President Bush to change the law. (AP)<p>Nope. Remember, abortion has been legal in the United States longer than 30 years.<p>WASHINGTON - Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rallied at the nation's symbols of freedom yesterday, energized on both sides by Republican hopes of curbing the procedure 30 years after the Supreme Court legalized it. (AP, in the Baltimore Sun)<p>Hundreds of papers use AP unedited .<p>
WASHINGTON - Despite Republican control of the White House and Congress, there is little chance that a woman's right to abortion, granted by the Supreme Court 30 years ago, will be overturned any time soon. (Philadelphia Inquirer)<p>Not quite.<p>WASHINGTON--On the 30th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade, the White House signaled Wednesday that it will try for ``common ground'' between those on either side of the wrenching debate over legalized abortion. (Los Angeles Times)<p>Deft, but it doesn't say that Roe v. Wade was. "Everyone knows," I hear you cry. No. Much of the above shows that to be false.


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 4:41 am 
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None of this is news to you people:<p>From: blanp
Date: Fri Mar 5, 1999 9:46 am
Subject: Repeating errors won't make them right<p>
By Joan Biskupic
Retired Justice Harry A.. Blackmun, author of the historic Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal and radically transformed American society and politics, died yesterday at the age of 90.<p>***After all these years, the same error is repeated over and over. Listen up: Roe vs. Wade did not "make abortion legal." Abortion already was legal in several states (including New York) when the Supreme Court decided the case. What Roe vs. Wade did was establish a constitutional right to abortion. This is basic stuff that no copy editor should get wrong.***<p>I guess not everyone was awake that morning.<p>[ January 23, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 10:37 am 
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I know we shouldn't bother holding local talking heads to any kind of standard, but I would've expected more from Tom Brokaw, who led his newscast with a stirring reminder of the Supreme Court decision that "legalized" abortion.


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 3:57 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
How did we do?<p>WASHINGTON - Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rallied at the nation's symbols of freedom yesterday, energized on both sides by Republican hopes of curbing the procedure 30 years after the Supreme Court legalized it. (AP, in the Baltimore Sun)<p>Hundreds of papers use AP unedited.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Proofreader's efforts defeated. The battle continues.


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2003 4:43 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
How did we do?<p><hr></blockquote>Well, A2 today has a correction, so someone, somewhere must have heard you screaming.<p>[ January 24, 2003: Message edited by: SusanV ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Tue Jan 28, 2003 2:56 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Rove, during a rare appearance before reporters, said the two measures are part of "the immediate tasks at hand." He stopped short of promising a White House push to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which determined that a woman's constitutional privacy rights entitled her to get an abortion in the first trimester of her pregnancy. (Washington Post)<p>Nicely done.<hr></blockquote><p>I heard that the Washington Post had to run a correction on this description. True?


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 Post subject: Re: Reinventing the Wheel
PostPosted: Tue Jan 28, 2003 3:13 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
<p>I heard that the Washington Post had to run a correction on this description. True?<hr></blockquote><p>The Post did run this correction to the story:<p>CORRECTION:
A Jan. 23 article on President Bush's agenda incorrectly described Roe v. Wade. The 1973 Supreme Court decision established a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion. <p>
I don't know the story behind the correction, but the story was correct. It would have been better to include the "essentially without restriction." The trimester distriction is important, as is the finding of privacy rights. Strictly speaking, the decision established that privacy rights entitle a woman to have an abortion virtually without restriction. It did not find a constitutional right to abortion, per se. <p>The relevant quotations from Roe v. Wade:<p>3. State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother's behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. Though the State cannot override that right, it has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman's health and the potentiality of human life, each of which interests grows and reaches a "compelling" point at various stages of the woman's approach to term. Pp. 147-164. <p>(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician. Pp. 163, 164. <p>
(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health. Pp. 163, 164. <p>
(c) For the stage subsequent to viability the State, in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life, may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother. Pp. 163-164; 164-165.<p>Again, I suggest reading the decision.<p>When I saw the correction, I didn't check the date and assumed that it related to a Jan. 22 story, which said:<p>In 2000, researchers at the Alan Guttmacher Institute say, there were 1,819 physicians performing abortions, down from 2,000 four years earlier. The new survey, released on the eve of today's 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, also found that 87 percent of the counties in the United States do not have a single abortion provider.<p>[ January 28, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>


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