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Wednesday, January 24, 2001
STATE
THE BATTALION
Ruling on abortion funding appealed
AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas attorney general’s
office has appealed a court ruling that said the state
violates poor women’s constitutional rights by
denying them Medicaid money to pay for med
ically necessary abortions.
The state’s appeal was filed late Monday and
puts an important question before the Republican-
dominated state Supreme Court: Should taxpayer
money be used to pay for some abortions?
“It’s going to be a good litmus test for them,” said
Kae McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas
Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
Abortion opponents agreed.
“This is the first time in my knowledge the
court will consider whether the Texas Constitution
has a right to abortion and whether taxpayers will
be forced to pay for abortions,” said Joe Pojman,
executive director of Greater Austin Right to Life.
The court will choose whether to hear the ap
peal or reject it. Both sides said they expect the
case to be granted oral argument, which could
come later this year.
“I think it would be highly unlikely for them not
to take the case,” Pojman said. “It’s such a funda
mental issue.”
The court currently has eight members, all of
them from the GOP. Republican Gov. Rick Per
ry has yet to appoint someone to fill the vacan
cy left by former Justice A1 Gonzalez, a Repub
lican who resigned to be White House counsel
for President Bush.
Medicaid is a federal and state program that
pays for health care for the poor. Federal law pro-
«
This is the first time in my
knowledge the court will con
sider whether the Texas con
stitution has a right to abor-
tion.”
- joe Pojman
Executive director of Greater Austin Right to Life
hibits federal Medicaid money from paying for
abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when
the mother’s life is in danger. Texas officials used
the same criteria for spending state money.
But the Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled
last month that the state’s position violates
women’s equal rights under the Texas constitution.
Texas voters amended the state constitution in
1972 to include equality under the law regardless
of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.
The appeal from Republican Attorney John
Cornyn’s office, however, argues that the goal of
the restriction is to encourage child birth over abor
tion. To meet that goal, there are limits to paying
for abortions, the appeal said.
The Austin appeals court ruled the restriction is
unconstitutional partly because it affected only
women. No procedure available to men met the
same restrictions, the court said.
Doctors and family planning clinics that pro
vide abortions for Medicaid-eligible women
filed a lawsuit in 1998 on behalf of poor women
in Texas.
Women suffering from heart disease, hyper
tension, cancer, epilepsy and other complica
tions run serious health risks when pregnant, the
doctors said.
Under current law, a doctor may recommend an
abortion in such cases but Medicaid will not pay
for it. Those women are forced to extend a risky
pregnancy while trying to raise the money them
selves, the doctors said.
The state should pay for an abortion a doctor
deems “medically necessary” even if the woman’s
life is not in imminent danger, the doctors said.
More benefits for poor Texans
Lawmakers try to increase Medicaid users
District’s
drug tests
battled
AMARILLO (AP) — Hollister
Gardner, a former Tulia High
School student who sued the
school district over its drug testing
policy has also filed a cross appeal
with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals in New Orleans.
In December, U.S. District
Judge Mary Lou Robinson found
the district’s “mandatory random,
suspicionless drug testing” policy
violates the Fourth Amendment,
which protects against unreason
able search and seizure.
Robinson ruled that the dis
trict should refrain from testing
Molly Gardner, a high school se
nior, or her brother, Colby Gard
ner, a sophomore. But she did not
award their cousin, Hollister
Gardner, now 21 and a senior at
Angelo State University, any
damages. Nor did she raise his
grades or find the district in vio
lation of the Texas Open Meet
ings Act as he had requested.
In 1997, Gardner, then a
straight-A student at Tulia High
School, sued the district. The suit
claimed that forcing him to under
go a drug test to participate in the
National Honor Society violated
his constitutional rights.
The district’s policy requires all
students involved in extracurricu
lar activities — about 80 percent
of the student body — to submit to
randorh drug tests.
Gardner alleges his grades were
harmed when his high school prin
cipal refused to excuse absences in
retaliation for his lawsuit and says
the principal and the board treated
him differently than other students.
AUSTIN (AP) — Several law
makers set out Tuesday to streamline
the Texas Medicaid application
process by eliminating rules that they
say are pushing hundreds of thou
sands of poor children out of the
grasp of public health care.
The biggest obstacle for many
poor families is the pile of paperwork
that must be completed to receive
coverage. Applicants can be inundat
ed with a 17-page application, up to
14 forms and up to 20 verifications
of those forms from the Texas De
partment of Human Services.
Lora Gonzales of Austin said it
has been a hassle to get her 3-week-
old daughter on Medicaid while she
was suffering from colic and a cold.
“It’s a waste of my time and I think
it’s a waste of DHS’s time,” said Gon
zales, 20. “The amount of paper-work
that they have to go through, that I
have to go through is ridiculous.”
Rep. Patricia Gray, chairwoman
of the House Public Health Com
mittee, is spearheading the simpli
fication efforts.
She wants to cut paperwork to a
volume comparable to the Children’s
Health Insurance Program, or CHIP,
which has a one-page application and
up to five verification forms.
To date, CHIP covers more than
200,000 Texas children whose par
ents do not qualify for Medicaid but
can not afford private insurance. The
federal-state program has few of the
restrictions of Texas Medicaid.
Gray’s package of bills filed
Tuesday gets rid of assets tests,
which exclude families from Med
icaid coverage if they have more
than $2,000 in assets other than
their home and one vehicle.
Also under the bills, applicants
would be screened and recertified
for the program by telephone or
mail, instead of by face-to-face in
terviews. Children would be pro
vided 12 months of continuous eli
gibility, instead of the current
month-to-month eligibility which
fluctuates with the family’s finan
cial situation.
If Medicaid does not cover chil
dren’s health expenses, taxpayers will
end up paying more, said Gray, D-
Galveston.
“We just shift costs to the coun
ties by sending kids to the emergency
room for preventative care and we
don’t take care of Texas’ most valu
able future resource, our children,”
Gray said.
Texas’ Medicaid system has long
been criticized as archaic and intim
idating to poor families. The state is
currently appealing a federal judge’s
ruling that criticized Texas for not do
ing enough to help children access
Medicaid programs.
One-fourth of Texas’ approx
imately 20 million people — 1.4
million of them children — lack
health insurance. There are 1.5
million children enrolled in
Medicaid and about 600,000
who qualify but are not enrolled.
With the reforms, lawmakers be
lieve they could sign up 480,000 of
the 600,000 children, costing the
state an additional $400 million i'n
the next biennium.
Waters faces trial for kidnapping
SAN ANTONIO (AP) —-The trial of Madalyn Mur
ray O’Hair’s former office manager, who faces charges
in the atheist’s disappearance, will proceed despite de
fense attorneys’ claims they have not had adequate op
portunity to prepare.
David Roland Waters, accused of masterminding the
disappearance, is scheduled to stand trial Monday on
charges he and others kidnapped O’Hair, her son and
granddaughter in a plot that investigators believe end
ed in their slaying.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks this week denied de
fense attorneys’ motion to delay the trial, which could
provide a final installment in one of the nation’s most
baffling celebrity disappearances.
“This case has been set. The continuance will be
denied. This case is going to trial Monday,” Sparks
said after a hearing in which tempers flared.
Waters’ lawyers accused prosecutors of being slow
in providing information.
“We’re trying to avoid being ambushed at trial,” said
Tracy Spoor, who with lawyer Bill Gates represents Wa
ters on charges of kidnapping, robbery and extortion.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Carruth denied any
foot-dragging.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve bent over
backwards to help (Gates) get ready for trial,” said Carruth.
The judge found nothing to indicate delay tactics by
the government.
“There has been plenty of time for a competent
lawyer to prepare for this case,” Sparks said.
May Graduates
The Official
Texas A&M
Graduation Announcements
Order via the web!
http://graduation.tamu.edu
All orders and payments must be received by
March 2, 2001!
MSC Box Office
M-Fl lam-8pm
979-845-1234
1-888-890-5667
Summer stall
POSITIONS
Camp
r°
Z A R K
• Come to our Texas A&M University
Video Presentation:
Thursday,
January 25, 2001, 9:00 p.m.
MSC 206
A Christian sports and adventure camp for boys and girls ages 7-17, located in the heart of
the Ouachita Lake and Mountain Region in Arkansas, is now accepting applications for
summer staff positions.
155 Camp Ozark Drive (870) 867- / ll3l
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THE 12TH MAN FOUNDATION IS
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FOR POSITIONS IN ITS
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Flexible Scheduling
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To apply, visit the 12th Man Foundation Office
at the North End of Kyle Field, or fill out an
application online at:
www. 12thmanfoundation.com/telemarketing
News in Brief-—
McConaughey
buys Texas Ranch
SAN ANGELO (AP) — Actor
Matthew McConaughey has gotten
back to his West Texas roots.
The 31-year-old movie star
bought a 1,600-acre ranch com
plete with livestock in Irion County
for more than $500,000, the San
Angelo Standard-Times reported
Tuesday.
McConaughey’s older brother,
who lives in Midland, apparently
found the ranch for his sibling.
Kay and Coleta Stewart left be
hind a double-cab Ford truck, a mo
torcycle and a dog named Purina.
“They even left all the cows out
there. They didn’t hardly take any
thing with them,” said Mike Mc
Conaughey. “It was the saddest
thing I ever saw when he told his
dog goodbye.”
Word spread quickly that a Hol
lywood actor had moved into the
area, but even though Mc
Conaughey grew up in Uvalde,
about 155 miles southeast of his
new ranch, many seem unsure
who McConaughey is.
“I had to lend my video of ‘A
Time to Kill’ to five or six people so
they could see what he looks like,”
said Irion County Tax Assessor
Joyce Gray.
Help us clean up.
Take advantage of our
End of the year
Clearance Sale
50-75% ojf selected/Uemsy
AGGIELAND
OUTFITTERS
979-764-4445