Case catches Clinton’s eye
Nebraska’s partial-birth abortion case draws federal attention
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Clinton administration is asking the
Supreme Court to let it join a Nebraska
doctor’s fight against a restrictive state
abortion law. ;
Justice Department lawyers asked
the nation’s highest court this week to
let them participate when the closely
watched Nebraska case is argued
before the Court on April 27. They said
the law violates some women’s consti
tutional right to end their pregnancies.
The court’s decision in the case,
expected by late June, may determine
the fate of 30 states’ bans on a surgical
procedure opponents call“partial-birth
abortion.” The medical name of the
procedure is a dilation and extraction.
President Clinton twice has vetoed
a federal ban enacted by Congress. The
court has not yet said whether it will let
the administration participate in the
argument, but in a friend-of-the-court
brief made public Thursday that gov
ernment lawyers called the Nebraska
law “unconstitutional for three rea
sons.”
The brief says the law challenged
by Bellevue, doctor Leroy Carhart is
written so broadly it could be enforced
against more than one abortion proce
dure and is too vague to let doctors
know just what abortion techniques are
outlawed.
Even if the law is limited to a single
procedure, the brief says, it unduly bur
dens a woman’s right to abortion
because “it fails to provide an exception
to preserve the pregnant woman’s
health.”
The only exception to Nebraska’s
ban is if the outlawed procedure is nec
essary to save a woman’s life.
“The statute therefore prohibits the
... method even when a physician con
cludes that that method is best suited to
preserve the health of a particular
woman,” the brief says. “The ban there
fore forces at least some pregnant
women to forego a safer abortion
method for one that would compromise
their health.”
The surgical procedure at issue
involves partially extracting a fetus,
legs first, through the birth canal, cut
ting the skull and draining its contents.
Partial-birth abortion is not a medical
term.
Doctors call the method dilation
and extraction, or D&X.
Although the Nebraska law and
legal dispute focuses on the D&X pro
cedure, far more may be at stake.
Abortion-rights advocates say the
court’s decision could broadly safe
guard or dramatically erode abortion
rights, depending on what state legisla
tures can consider when regulating
abortions.
The Supreme Court has not issued
a major abortion ruling since 1992
when it reaffirmed the core holding of
its 1973 decision in a case called Roe v.
Wade. That landmark ruling said
women have a constitutional right to
abortion.
A federal appeals court struck
down the Nebraska law along with
those in Iowa and Arkansas. But nearly
identical laws in Illinois and Wisconsin
were upheld by another federal appeals
court.
The Nebraska case is Stenberg v.
Carhart, 99-830.
Cuban boy’s father plans U.S. visit
■ The father of Elian
Gonzalez applied for trav
el visa in fight for son.
WASHINGTON (AP) - On
Thursday, the father of Elian Gonzalez
applied for a visa to travel to the United
States from Cuba to regain custody of
his son, as the U.S. government and the
6-year-old boy’s Miami relatives
resumed talks to end the 4-month-old
legal dispute.
Attorney Gregory Craig submitted
the visa application on behalf of Juan
Miguel Gonzalez, his wife and other
family members.
“The only person that has the legal
and moral authority to speak for Elian
Gonzalez is his father,” Craig told
reporters. “Juan Miguel Gonzalez is
ready at a moment’s notice to come to
the United States.”
Craig said Elian’s father would
travel to the United States as soon as he
is assured that he will be given custody
of his son. “The time has come for the
INS (Immigration and Naturalization
Service) to make those assurances,”
Craig said.
The attorney said U.S. officials had
negotiated patiently with the boy’s
Miami relatives to arrange a prompt,
orderly transfer of custody to the
father.
“We fear that the negotiations have
failed,” he said. “The relatives in
Miami do not speak for Elian. The
lawyers in Miami do not speak for
Elian.”
The government has demanded
that the Miami relatives agree to sur
render Elian if they lose their court
fight to keep him.
Both sides met for five hours late
Wednesday, then resumed talking this
morning. There was no comment from
either side today.
Late Wednesday, the INS delayed
the revocation of Elian’s temporary
^ The only person that has the legal and
moral authority to speak for Elian
Gonzalez is his father.”
Gregory Craig
attorney
residency status 24 hours, until 9 a.m.
Friday.
When Juan Miguel Gonzalez
receives word that he will be able to
take custody of his son, Craig said, he
also would seek permission to allow
the boy’s classmates, teacher and doc
tors to travel to the United States to
“help smooth the transition.”
The attorney also accused the
Miami relatives of exploiting the boy’s
case in the media.
“The circumstances that now sur
round Elian’s life in Miami, including
the decision to allow camera crews into
Elian’s bedroom, the decision to permit
a network news program to film a two
day interview with Elian without the
father’s permission, and the decision
just last night to parade Elian in front of
demonstrators in the streets of Miami,
make it clear that Elian’s best interests
lie with his father,” Craig said.
Elian has been living with his
great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who
has said he would be willing to release
Elian to his father if Juan Miguel
Gonzalez came to Florida from Cuba.
He said he would not deliver the boy to
the INS.
Study traces finger length to homosexuality
■ Researchers find
masculine finger traits
in gay men, lesbians.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - A
provocative study of finger lengths
found that lesbians are more likely than
other women to have a subtle mascu
line trait, while gay men may display
that same characteristic more than het
erosexuals.
The research adds to an expanding
body of evidence that sexual orienta
tion is at least partly a matter of biology
- and not simply a choice or a result of
cultural or psychological influences.
It also provides evidence for the
theory that exposure to higher levels of
male sex hormones in the womb can
help make a person lesbian or gay,
despite the stereotype of effeminate gay
men, the researchers say.
The researchers at the University of
California at Berkeley built their study
on an already known quirk of human
Nebraskan
Managing Editor: Lindsay Young . . (nr f^e^t'ons^ ^fommeints^ ..
Associate News Editor: Dane Stickney ^or aP£[^!Ia,te,ff$t,0n e^,tor at
Associate News Editor: Diane Broderick '40“' V “I" , .
Opinion Editor: J.J. Harder e-mail dn@unl.edu.
Sports Editor: Sam McKewon
A&E Editor: Sarah Baker General Manager: Daniel Shattil
Copy Desk Co-Chief: Jen Walker Publications Board Jessica Hofmann,
Copy Desk Co-Chief: Josh Krauter Chairwoman: (402) 477-0527
Photo Chief: Mike Warren Professional Adviser: Don Walton,
Design Co-Chief: Diane Broderick (402) 473-7248
Design Co-Chief: Tim Karstens Advertising Manager: Nick Partsch,
Art Director: Melanie Falk (402) 472-2589
Web Editor: Gregg Steams AssL Ad Manager: Jamie Yeager
Asst Web Editor: Jewel Minarik Classifield Ad Manager: Nichole Lake
Fax number: (402) 472-1761
World Wide Web: www.dailyneb.com
The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is published by tne UNL Publications Board, Nebraska
Union 20,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year:
weekly during the summer sessions.The public has access to the Publications Board.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling
(402) 472-2588.
Subscriptions are $60 for one year.
, 1 * Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 20.1400 R St.,
Lincoln NE 68588-0448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1999
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
anatomy: Men tend to have shorter
index fingers than ring fingers. In
women, those two fingers tend to be
about the same length.
Scientists believe that men’s higher
levels of androgens - the male sex hor
mones such as testosterone that are
found in both sexes - produce this and
many other sex differences.
In the study published Thursday in
the journal Nature, the Berkeley
researchers interviewed 720 adults at
three street festivals in San Francisco,
asked them their sexual orientation and
measured their fingers.
The fingers of lesbians were closer
to the typical male configuration - with
the shorter index finger - than the fin
gers of other women. The finding
points to higher levels of male sex hor
mones in early life for lesbians, the
researchers said.
The researchers also found indirect
evidence of a similar trait in gay men.
They found that, in keeping with
earlier research, men with more older
brothers were more often gay, possibly
from escalating levels of androgens in
the womb for successive boys. The
researchers then went a step further,
showing that those same men with
older brothers also had relatively short
er index fingers - the hormonal male
pattern - than other men.
The researchers suspect that if they
had looked at larger numbers of people,
they would have found that gays overall
indeed show a more masculine finger
pattern than other men.
Some earlier researchers have also
tied male homosexuality to unusually
strong masculine traits.
“This calls into question all of our
cultural assumptions that gay men are
feminine,” said psychologist Marc
Breedlove, who led the Berkeley study.
He cautioned that finger-length dif
ferences hold up only as averages in
large populations, not for individuals.
The differences involved just fractions
of an inch.
Paula Ettelbrick, an activist at the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force,
said some gay men would welcome
such findings because “they aigue very
strenuously that their sexual orientation
is very well-defined and biological.”
But she said ultimately the question of
cause should not bear on the equal
rights debate.
TTW ■Il'MIin
Mostly cloudy Mostly cloudy
high 56, low 36 high 63, low 43
■ Detroit v>:
Three men sentenced ^
in ‘date-rape drug’ trial
DETROIT (AP) - Three men
were sentenced to up to 15 years frt''
prison for manslaughterThursday iA'
one of the nation’s first trials involv
ing a death linked to a “date-rapfc;
drug.”
A fourth man received a shorted
term for his part in the death of 1 Si
year-old Samantha Reid of
Rockwood, Mich. All four wer£
convicted March 14.
In January 1999, Samantlfct,
asked for a drink at a party and was
given a soft drink spiked with the
drug known as GHB. She becanie
violently ill, lost consciousness and
died the next day. A friend also
ingested the drug and was briefly in
a coma, but survived.
GHB has been linked to at least
58 deaths since 1990 and more than
5,700 recorded overdoses, accord
ing to the Drug Enforcement
Administration.
■ Washington, D.C.
Senior female Army officer
files harassment complaint
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Army is investigating a complaint
by its most senior female officer
that she was sexually harassed by a
fellow general, defense officials
said Thursday.
The accusation was made by
Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, 52, the
Army’s deputy chief of staff for
intelligence. She is the first female
three-star general in the history of
the Army and is due to retire this
summer.
The matter was first reported in
Thursday’s editions of the
Washington Times, which said it
had not learned the identity of the
accused general. The Times did not
say when Kennedy lodged her
complaint, but it said the allegation
stemmed from an incident in her
Pentagon office in October 1996
when she was a two-star major
general and was in the post of
assistant deputy chief of Army
intelligence.
The newspaper quoted an
unidentified Army source as say
ing Kennedy accused the general
of “inappropriate touching.”
■ China
Tensions could force U.S.
to sell arms to Taiwan
BEIJING (AP) - A senior aide
to President Clinton told Chinese
leaders that tensions could force
Washington to sell the Taiwanese
military more weapons, a U.S. offi
cial said Thursday.
On a mission to counsel
restraint following the recent
Taiwanese presidential election,
National Security Adviser Sandy
Berger also “reaffirmed in very
clear terms” that Washington still
acknowledges China’s claim to
Taiwan and wants a peaceful,
negotiated solution, the senior
administration official said on
condition of anonymity.
In talks Wednesday and
Thursday with China’s president,
premier and foreign policy team,
Berger discussed arms prolifera
tion, U.S. efforts to censure
Beijing before a U.N. human rights
panel and a pending congressional
vote on Chinese trading rights. But
Taiwan consumed the talks, often
provoking passionate Chinese
responses.
The exchanges underscored
Washington’s delicate role in an
unfinished civil war between
China and Taiwan.
K,
ff;i
: ni
