COll
Wednesday, march 7t 1 973
lincoln, nebraska vol. 96, no. 83
Hearing
considers
Decamp's
abortion
proposal
by Nancy Stohs
Standing outside the East Senate Chamber of the State
Capitol were several women wearing black armbands and
carrying signs saying "Abortion is a Social Disease-Restrict
it".
Inside, the Public Health and Welfare Committee of the
unicameral was about to spend three and a half hours in public
deliberation over LB286-Sen. John DeCamp's proposed state
abortion law.
The bill, introduced by DeCamp Tuesday, is an amended
version of a previous bill, but is a "bill in itself," he said.
Following guidelines set by the Jan. 22 Supreme Court
decision which declared statutes similar to Nebraska's existing
abortion laws illegal, old LB286 pen-posed legalizing abortion
up to the third month of pregnancy with consent of the
woman.
In contrast, the current bill, LB286, is described by
DeCamp as a "medical standards bill" because it does not
directly sanction abortion in Nebraska, but rather defines
illegal procedures and penalties.
Because Nebraska's previous law was declared void,
abortion is virtually unrestricted in Nebraska. DeCamp called
this a dangerous situation.
In the public testimony that followed, the committee heard
abortion views ranging from medical to constitutional to
theological standpoints.
The Nebraska Physicians who spoke basically supported
LB286, with minor alterations.
He also said mandatory hospitalization should not be
required for abortions during the first three months of
pregnancy.
According to Dr. Robert Messer of the NU Medical Center,
the center hospital has faced a "tremondous demand" for
abortions since Nebraska's laws became void.
Speaking for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, Paul V.
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John V. O'Hara . . . DeCamp's abortion bill better than no abortion law at all.
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Bruce Hamilton ... to defy the U.S. Supreme Court's
abortion decision is the same as asking support for
drug pushers.
O'Hara expressed support for restrictive abortion laws, but
said the conference opposed the Supreme Court ruling making
them necessary.
Several persons said legalized abortion on demand denies
the unborn child the constitutionally-guaranteed right to life.
"Murder is murder at any stage of human development,"
said a spokesman for the Lincoln Organization of Women for
Responsible Legislation.
Supporting the legalized abortion but opposing LB286 was
a man who called the bill "class legislation" because only
financially well-off women could afford a hospitalized
abortion.
A woman who tried to obtain an abortion in Nebraska
several months ago testified to this and said no woman should
be forced to have a baby she didn't want.
Several groups who opposed legalized abortion proposed
instead that the Legislature defy t!ie Supreme Court decision.
A state-wide moratorium against abortion and the
prosecution of all women and doctors involved in abortions
since the January ruling were among the suggestions.
State Sen. Frank Lewis called this "in poor taste" and
added that under a constitutional government, the only legal
way to reverse a Supreme Court decision is through a
constitutional amendment.
Lincoln attorney Bruce Hamilton said asking the
Legislature to defy tie "law of the land" was no different than
asking for support for drug pushers or crime in the streets.
The youngest woman testifying at the hearing was Mary
Lyons, a high school sophomore from Omaha. Lyons, a
member of the Right to Life committee of Omaha, said the
proposal contained too many constitutional loopholes to be
passed.
Smith: It'll cost $600,000 to save $120,000)
by Ken Kirk
Implementing changes in business procedures
could save the University $120,000 a year. But the
changes will cost $600,000 to implement.
This is what Glenn Smith told the Board of
Regents at its meeting last Saturday. Smith is in
charge of University budget and systems planning.
He was commenting on a progress report from the
New York consulting firm of Cresap, McCormick and
Paget, which was hired to study the administrative
and business operations at the University.
The consulting firm made 135 business
recommendations; 48 have been adopted and another
85 are in various stages of implementation, Smith
said.
University officials disagree with two of the
recommendations, he said.
Revision of the accounting system was one of the
changes recommended by the report. Other
recommendations included the transfering of
National Defense Education Act (NDEA) loans to
accounting, and the centralization of investment of
idle cash funds. All of these recommendations have
been implemented.
The report also suggested reducing the number of
housing payments made by students.
"We haven't taken time to set down with each
recommendation to determine how much time and
resources (money and people) are needed," Smith
said.
He estimated it would take two-and-a-half to four
years to implement all the changes. "It depends on
how fast we get the money," he said.
"To do it right we need to study the
recommendations for six months."
"What the University is for is a general map
including time and dollar estimates and a list of
priorities telling which recommendations will give the
greatest return, he said.
Smith said the University would put money into
the area with the longest payoff first.
Smith said implementing the recommendations
would save money, but it would be difficult for the
average taxpayers to see where money is saved.
Spending will continue to rise as the University
continues to grow, he said. If the University would
stop growing, the savings would be obvious as
spending decreased.
Smith said there were two possible sources of
money to implement the changes. Stale
appropriations or a temporary price increase in the
food and supplies inventories could provide financing.
Smith said there was not enough time after the
report was received to request state funds to finance
the changes.
"Given unlimited resources we still couldn't
implement all the recommendations in a year," Smith
said. "With $600,000 over three years we could
probably get it done."
He said the savings would come primarily from
educing the cost of supplies and by reducing the
Jme people spend on various tasks.
Smith said $100,000 to $150,000 a year is
"probably a conservative estimate of the savings, if
we make all the changes."
As an example of how money could be raised to
implement the recommendations, he said the price of
a ream of paper might be increased one penny.
All the pennies will go to implement the change,
which might reduce the cost of the paper by two or
three cents. So Departments may pay an extra penny
a ream this year, but in two years might be saving
two or three cents a ream yearly.