ee Castlégar News June 1, 1988 Recreation news Swim season is just about here. This weekend we will be kicking off Red Cross Water Safety Week along with celebrating Sunfest weekend at the Bob Brandson Pool. All the festivities take place on Sunday from 1.3:30 p.m. and they are free. So come down to the pool and join in on a bit of Aussie fun. There will be games, music, refreshments and lots of sunshine. Be sure to join the pool staff for an afternoon of tub races, downunder challenges, relays, ob stacle course and loads of fun. See you there Public Swimming Public swimming for the month of June starts on Saturday. The hours are: Saturday and Sunday 1-3:30 p.m. and 6:30-8 p.m. Monday through Friday 3:30-5 p.m. and 7-8:30 p.m (except Tuesday and Thursday even ing). Season passes are now on sale at the recreation office. Plan to buy your pass early and get the most out of the swim season Summer Games The summer games for the physi cally disabled are being held July 14-17 in Trail. Over 200 athletes from throughout B.C., Alberta and Wash inton state will be competing in sports ranging from golf to electric slalom. Everyone is invited to attend all events and the opening cere monies at Haley Field. Volunteers are still needed. If you are interested in becoming involved, phone 364-2600 for more information Summer Fitness Our summer fitness schedule has commenced. Fitness classes will be taking place five days a week at the complex. Morning classes happen every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-10 a.m. Evening classes are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 78 p.m. Fitness tick ets are available at the recreation office, 10 tickets for $15 or $2 drop-in Plan to stay in shape this summer and have fun at the same time. Aussie preview By JUDY WEARMOUTH Librarian For a preview of Australia to put you in the mood for the Sunfest festivities, come to the library on Friday at 3:30 p.m. for a “beaut” slide show of Australian animals, birds and scenery. Pat Livingstone will show photos she took of koalas, kangaroos and wombats and many other delightful creatures on her recent trip’ down under. Naturally, we're featuring displays of Australian books and our windows are just hopping these days. For even more Australian content, listen to the library story on CKQR on Sunday at 10:10 a.m. Can you recog. nize that Aussie drawl? 317 Oma. Zor >00) Answer to Sunday, June 12 Cryptoquip: WHEN GREAT MARATHON RUNNER FAINTED DURING THE LAST MILE IT WAS THE REVIVAL OF THE FITTEST We know there are people who enjoy doing things the old-fashioned way. But that takes time. So they use our modern Automated Teller to speed things up. The convenience of our 24 hour teller means you can do your banking any time of day or night. Make fast withdrawals, deposits, loan payments, transfers and much more. With your Kootenay Savings Cue Card or MasterCard Card, you can also get to your account through any other Cue-Strata or Exchange Machine in North America Best of all, our Automated Teller doesn't cost you any more to use. There are no extra service charges _ Some Of Our Members Prefer'To DoThings By Hand. So when youd like to use your time for something other than banking, use our Automated Tellers in Trail and Castlegar. They're so quick and easy to use, you'll end up with time on your hands. Make Time For Yourself. Use Our Automated Tellers. ‘KS | Where You belong Trail — Fruitvale © Castlegar o Salmo > South Slocan o Nakusp © New Denver o Waneta Plaza © Kaslo e accept all Esso Top Secret Savings II Coupons at... Minionum 25 lize purchase required ‘One coupon per transaction No trouble coupon redemption at your local Shell outlet. Shell will redeem all other valid gas coupons for $1.00 with a minimum 25 litre purchase. One coupon per transaction. - Need amortgage? We'll make it happen. ABORTION World abortions outnumber deaths Editor's note: Abortion, so often a moral issue, is also a fact of life around the world. And the international trend is toward more liberal abortion policies. This article outlines world attitudes toward abortion. By CALVIN WOODWARD Canadian Press UNITED NATIONS — Abortions outnumber deaths among the world’s population. For every two pregnancies brought to term, at least, one is deliberately not. So, even more than disease, famine and war, abortion is a brake on the world's worrisome population growth. But, unlike contraception, it is rarely acknow. ledged as such by policymakers. It is also a raging moral battleground in public debate. But when governments are compelled to make rules on abortion, pragmatism has often provided the guiding light. Canada plans to draft new abortion legislation now that the old law, requiring women to seek the approval of therapeutic abortion committees at accredited hospitals, has been struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. An initial debate on the issue has started in the House of Commons to be followed by a free vote to identify the general abortion policy favored by the majority. On that basis, a bill would eventually be drawn up and submitted to Parliament for more debate. If the result is a further liberalization of abortion policy, Canada would be part of an international trend. And if that course is taken despite great personal reservations about abortion on the part of many in Parliament, Stanley Henshaw, an American authority on world abortion practices, will understand why. LAW DIFFICULT “It's very difficult to translate moral concern about when a woman is deserving of abortion and when she isn’t into an enforceable policy that makes those judgments,” says Henshaw. “Legislators invoke restrictions that seem to salve their conscience but often don’t have a major impact on the actual provision of abortions. I think Canada, under its former law, was a good example of that. Pragmatism has generally meant a recognition that women who want abortions are going to get them somehow, that more women are demanding them, that the practice is widespread even where it is illegal and that legalizing it has made it far safer. Not many governments — and certainly not the consensus-seeking United Nations — have gone further to assert flatly that the option of abortion is a human right. Nevertheless, access to abortion has been broadened in societies both rich and poor, liberal and conservative, democratic and dictatorial; in countries where constitutions make courts supreme and in countries where government policy holds sway. HALF ILLEGAL Each year, in a world of five billion people, there are 120 million births and 40 million deaths, says Nafis Sadik, director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, an operation concerned primarily with world overpopulation. As well, Sadik says, there are at least 60 million abortions — about half of them legal. “Many of the Catholic countries don’t have abortion as a policy and are reducing their rates of (population) growth,” she said. “But on the other hand, in all of these countries where abortion is not legal, there are large numbers of illegal abortions.” Church By PAUL JANKOWSKI Press TORONTO — In his corner office on the top floor of the United Church of Canada’s national headquarters, Rev. Howard Mills points to a pile of correspondence and speaks about the Bible. He doesn't quote chapter and verse. He speaks sadly of those letters that do. “There seems to be a growing reference to scripture in a very titeralist way,” he says, 5 i Few countries, Henshaw adds, have ever acknow- ledged overpopulation as a reason for a liberal abortion law — China being a major exception. Henshaw is co-author of a world review of abortion practices published by the Alan G Insti in New York. The institute favors strong abortion rights but is regarded by UN officials as a source of objective, even definitive world abortion facts. GROUP COUNTRIES The latest Guttmacher review says most people live in areas where abortion is legal at least for health reasons “and the recent trend has been toward further liberalization.” It says 40 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries where abortion is allowed on reque: it least in the first trimester of pregnancy, including the United States, the Soviet Union, China, France and Italy. Canada, under its previous law, was among the countries providing it “virtually” on request, the review says in what may have been a necessary over-simplifi- cation of the complex Canadian reality. A quarter of the world’s people live in these countries, among them Britain, India, Japan and most European socialist states. Another 25 per cent of the world’s population — and a third of the population of developing countries — lives in countries where abortion is permitted only to save the woman's life, or not at all. These are mainly countries where the Roman Catholic Church or the Muslim faith exert great influence or where lawmakers operate on old European codes that most of Europe itself has left behind. In this category are almost two-thirds of Latin America, half of Africa, most Muslim countries of Asia as well as the Irish republic, Belgium and Malta. The remainder of the world’s population, about 10 per cent, live in countries where women whose lives are not endangered by the pregnancy may get an abortion only for narowly defined health reasons or possibly in cases of tape or incest. USES AS TOOL In some cases, abortion is a tool of public policy — communist China being the most explicit in relying on it, along with contraception, to control the size of families and reduce overpopulation. It is also a tool in Romania, but to the opposite end. The Guttmacher institute's report says abortion and contraception in Romania are severely restricted because of concern about underpopulation, and government policy is to monitor women younger than 40 and with fewer than four children to ensure they bring pregnancies to term. Some countries, meanwhile, have taken tough stands based on principle. Henshaw says the Soviet Union, fot one, continues to act on its belief that the option of abortion is a woman's fundamental right, despite the Soviet government's concerns about low fertility. There are two abortions in the Soviet Union for evey birth — the highest rate among countries where abortion is legal in most circumstances. The Republic of Ireland also acted on principle — by amending its constitution in 1983 to discourage liberalization of its already restrictive abortion policies. The amendment was opposed primarily not by pro-choice groups but by pragmatists who thought the courts could be trusted to keep reasonable control on legal abortions, said a for the Irish 1 in New York. Ina referendum with a low turnout, the Irish voted in crisis Its most controversial recommendations are that the church “acknowledge that heterosexual, gay and lesbian adults can engage in sexual behavior within a committed relationship with the intention of permi anence that is morally responsible. The standards for discerning whether sexual behavior is morally ible are the same irrespective of ori ion or marital ‘status.” The report also recommends the church “affirm that sexual ori ion in and of itself is not a barrier to that “isn’t part of our tradition.” Mills, the church's general secretary, speaks often of United Church tradition during this interview — the church's traditional way of making decisions, its tradition of reconciling diverse beliefs, its role in ing spiritual leadership for its members. e are a church that discerns what is true for our times,” he says. “We don't have a dogmatic system, where truth with a capital T comes down from on high . . . The United Church never presumes to have that truth.” But if there is one truth for these times in the United Church, it is that Canada's largest Protestant. denomination is in eri Ministers, members, even whole congregations in the 900,000-member church have threatened a schism over one report: Toward a Christian Understanding of Sexual Orientations, Lifestyles and the Ministry. TOOK FOUR YEARS The report, four years in the making, was released for discussion March 4. It is to be dealt with by the church's highest decision-making body,‘ the general council, in August. participation in all aspects of the life and ministry of the church, including thé order of ministry.” The severest critics say the report, if accepted, will lead to bed-hopping fornicators of all tastes and appetites preaching from the pulpit. They point to the general council's rejection in 1984 ofar ion that sexual ori ion should be no barrier to a life in the ministry and say the report shows the church bureaucracy has been hijacked by radicals intent on imposing their moral values on the membership. They say the report is the result of theological colleges whose professors want to rid the church of the teachings of Christ. FLAYS SUPPORTERS Neither side of the argument has lacked intensity. Indeed, some people have been “demeaning, mean- spirited, even immoral” in their support of the report, says David Ewart, one of its authors. Debate within the church and media coverage has centred on the issue of gay ministers, even though there are those on both sides who acknowledge that there are homosexuals already in the pulpit. ABORTION PROTEST . . . Abortion policy sparked debate locally earlier this year when local right to lite supporters took to the streets with signs and placards to champion rights of the unborn. . —ConNews File Proto By The Canadian Press Here are some milestones in abortion law: 1803: Abortion made a felony in Britain. 1860: U.S. doctors, concerned in part about losing business to midwives, launch a campaign for laws restricting abortion to women whose lives are threatened by pregnancy. Many states adopt such laws. 1920: The Soviet Union legalizes abortion on request, In 1936, restrictions are introduced but then are repealed in 1955. 1938: A British court rules that abortion is not unlawful if it is done to preserve the mother's life or if the doctor believes the continued pregnancy would make the woman a “physical and mental wreck.” The decision remains a model in some Commonwealth countries today. 1948: The UN World Health Organization defines health as the total state of physical, mental and social weil-Veing, a definition used later in U.S. courts to broaden access to abortion. 1967: The first of 13 U.S. states adopts a code permitting abortion when doctors believe the continued pregnancy would “gravely impair” the physical or mental health of the mother or child, or in cases of rape or incest. HISTORY OF ABORTION 1968: British law further liberalizes abortion, permitting it when the various risks of continuing Pregnancy are “greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.” 1969: Canada liberalizes law to permit abortions, when authorized by a majority of members on hospital committees, in cases where women’s life or health is likely threatened. 1970: Alaska, Hawaii and New York, in effect, authorize abortion on request. aa 1973: Roe Vs. Wade and related U.S. Supreme Court decisions made abortion in the first trimester purely a decision between women and doctors. 1973: Danish law permitting abortion on request in the first trimester is passed and becomes a model for much of Western Europe. 1979: China inaugurates a one-child campaign and uses abortion, sterilization and contraception to enforce it. 1983: The Republic of Ireland amends _ its constitution to protect the “right to life” of the unborn. 1984: Romania, concerned about low birthrates, cracks down on the enforcement of 1966 law severely limiting abortion and modern contraception. 2-to-1 to “defend and vindicate” the right to life of the unborn in their constitution. However, the Irish parliament has not yet passed specific legislation supporting the amendment. Far more countries have gone the other way — 30 over the last 20 years — since the liberalizing trend began in northern Europe in the 1930s, the Guttmacher institute says. Countries as politically and religiously diverse as Portugal, Taiwan and Turkey have been among the latest to ease access to abortion. In Norway and Sweden, meanwhile, only 10 per cent of girls who become pregnant before the age of 15 carry their pregnancies to term, compared with 36 to 57 per cent in English-speaking countries, the institute says. U.S. law makes abortion in the first trimester a decision between a woman and her doctor, thanks to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1973 which removed even the pretense of justifying abortion on health grounds. A related U.S. court decision that year freed women from having to go through abortion committees and reduced other procedural obstacles. Over sex report Rev. Bill Fritz, a minister in Barrie, Ont., ana chairman of the anti-report organization Community of Concern, says the church “accepts homosexual people. There are homosexual ministers.” But the report goes too far: “It is asking us to approve of the homosexual lifestyle.” Still, if the report is rejected by the general council there will be no “witch hunt,” he says. Fritz and_general secretary Mills were classmates at the church’s Emmanuel College in Toronto in 1959. But they have little in common in the current debate. Mills is concerned about what he sees ag a trend toward a literalist view of the Bible by those opposed to the report. Fritz wonders if there was enough attention paid to scripture in its writing. DELAY SOUGHT Mills and other senior national church staff have suggested the general council be petitioned to consider a moratorium on action on the report until 1992. “Our perception of the mood of the church is that total acceptance of the report would not be wise at this time but total rejection would be a denial of our past,” he told the United Church Observer. “T'm very, very much opposed to that,” says Fritz. “We have had eight years of discussion... We need to deal with it with finality.” Before 1992, Mills wants the church to focus on the use of scripture and other underlying concerns that have contributed to “the intensity of the crisis” over the report Opponents and supporters of the report — with former moderators on both sides — have waged a war of words in advertisements and public statements and articles. Delegates to the regional conference in London, Ont., voted to send more than 150 petitions against the report to the general council but leave any decision on the future of the study up to the council. The petitions carry neither approval or disapproval of the conference but represent “the visible witness of the care, work and diversity of the many congregations within this conference.” United Church losing members TORONTO (CP) — The United Church of Canada is losing more members than it's attracting, church figures indicate. But members are donating more money than before, the 1987 figures also show. “The people figures are down, but the money is up.” church spokesman Doug Flanders said last week. Church officials deny members are leaving the church over several controversial issues, i the use of ist | in church li and a church report recommending that the ordin- ation of practising homosexuals be allowed.