
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990                   TAG: 9004090253
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LACK OF ETHICS TYPIFIES `PRO-CHOICE'

KATHRYN Haynie, Southwest Virginia Planned Parenthood director, displays a casual attitude toward ethics and honesty. Haynie claimed (letter Nov. 30) that she untruthfully called Joe Scheidler the founder of Operation Rescue because I represented myself as calling her "on behalf of Operation Rescue" when I invited her to debate him. In fact, I told her I was calling "on behalf of Joseph Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League of Chicago."

While this error may have been inadvertent, Haynie committed a deeper offense on Jan. 25, 1989. In a Commentary Page column, "Why women choose abortion," she plagiarized from a story written by Katha Pollitt that appeared in The New York Times Magazine on Nov. 20, 1988. Here's a paragraph from Haynie's column:

"[They] do what they need to do to lead reasonable lives. Nowadays, a reasonable life does not involve a shotgun wedding, dropping out of school or embracing the minimum wage for life. Still less does it include [having] a baby for strangers to adopt, as George Bush blithely suggests. [Women] who have abortions believe that having a baby at [this] time in their lives would be a disaster, not an inconvenience. Five, 10, or 15 years later, [98 percent] report no regrets [regrets her decision]."

Except for the bracketed words, this passage above was stolen from Pollitt's article without attribution. I submit that Haynie's lack of honesty here typifies the entire pro-abortion movement. She owes an apology both to Pollitt and to the editors and readers of this newspaper for her plagiarism.

However, after once taking the plunge, perhaps it's a shame Haynie didn't "borrow" a bit more of Pollitt's piece. Elsewhere in the original, we read that "abortion is . . . a bloody, clumsy method of birth control," and "The fact is, when your back is against the wall of unintended pregnancy, it doesn't matter whether or not you think the fetus is a person." (Emphasis mine.)

That is the crux of the pro-abort position: Their convenience matters more than their children's right to continue living. It's time these so-called "pro-choicers" admit that in their selfishness, the only choice they care about is their own! And they will kill to have it. MARLA BURT, R.N. Vice chairman, Pro-Life Coalition DUBLIN

by CNB