The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 108

G-4 The Orlando Sentinel, Sunday, November 28, 1999 A'Oi If k' I I Men, women view the abortion issue much the same way Jll 7 I mi in I i tit. I.I Bush Bauer Ji -i: Hatch, Forbes I LOS ANGELES TIMES McCain Keyes A money matter. Gleb Khokhlov and his wife, Alia, paid an ostetrician $300 to ensure a healthy delivery for their newborn son. For the doctor, the payoff was like getting nearly a year's pay. Greasy palms help things go smoothly in Russia Gore Bradley In a country where everything is for sale, Russian pay bribes as a matter of course in their everyday lives.

Here is the cost of some ordinary and some not-so-ordinary bribes: Avoiding arrest for drunken driving: $100 minimum Getting a doctor's certificate of disability: $60 to $1 ,000 Enrolling a child at a good nursery school: $200 to $500 Passing a university exam: A bottle of vodka to $1 50 Getting a driver's license without driving school or test: Avoiding military service: $5,000 Obtaining a phone line without a long wait: $600 to $1 ,000 Getting access to an important official: $1 ,000 Permission to install a police-style flashing light on car roof: ,500 Clearing an imported car through customs: $3,500 Getting an arrest warrant withdrawn: $10,000 Halting a criminal investigation: $30,000 to $100,000 Cancelling a contract killing: $50,000 Source: Los Angeles Times ISSUE from G-1 Steve Forbes. Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes are two other Republicans seeking the nomination who highlight their opposition to abortion as a major part of their campaign, but neither gets out of single digits in the polls. While Forbes' position has remained consistent Forbes opposes late-term abortions he has made the issue a central part of his campaign to win conservative voters. But in acknowledging that most Americans support the nation's current approach, Forbes isn't proposing any policies that would significantly reduce the number of abortions. "You're not going to change the law until you change the culture," Forbes said during a visit to Orlando recently.

"The way you change the culture is by changing the law step by step." While Republicans are avoiding the issue, Democratic rivals Gore and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley are trying to "out choice" each other, said Arizona State University political scientist Kenneth Goldstein. "The issue is becoming less and less a litmus test with Republican voters and more and more a test with Democrats," Goldstein said. "Look, Steve Forbes is your Republican pro-life candidate it doesn't get any clearer than that. Abortion is not the issue it once was in Republican politics." In recent years, Democrats have won elections on the gender gap particularly the support of Republican women.

Abortion was one issue that could help Democrats secure that vote. But the times are changing, and voters say they are less concerned about the abortion issue. "While abortion feelings may run strong for many, abortion is not a key electoral issue for most Americans," recently wrote Lydia Saad, managing editor of The Gallup Poll. Gallup's surveys found that although more than half of all Americans hold strong opinions about abortion, only 19 percent say they will only support candidates who share their view on that issue. "The public is almost evenly split on the issue, with 48 percent currently calling themselves 'pro choice' and 42 percent identifying themselves as she wrote, based on a May 1999 poll of 1,000 Americans with a margin of error of less than 3 percent.

"While adherence to the abortion label tilts slightly in the pro-choice direction, a follow up question finds greater intensity of feeling on the part of the pro-life respondents." Although abortion is often labeled by the news media as a "women's issue," there is virtually no difference in opinion on the issue among men and women, she wrote. Adding to the diminished role of abortion in the presidential campaign is the fact that fewer than 23 percent of U.S. pregnancies ended in abortion last year the lowest rate in 20 years. The biggest reason is that methods of birth control have improved and are more accessible. Another reason is that, as the Baby Boomer generation ages, there are fewer women of child-bearing age.

Goldstein said Americans have reached a consensus. "Most people agree that abortion is wrong, that abortion is bad," Goldstein said. "But they want it to be legal." The change has enabled Republicans to downplay the issue even criticize those who want to keep abortion on the front burner. Bush, for example, has said he will not use abortion as a litmus test in the appointment of Supreme Court justices. Bush opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in jeopardy.

But that's as far as he will go, and he criticizes those who would push for a constitutional ban. "I believe it is an issue that divides and, given the decisions in the courts thus far, one that divides unnecessarily," Bush said recently. "We need a president that brings people together." Asked earlier this month whether he would support a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions except in the case of incest, rape or to save the mother's life, he said "the country is not ready for a constitutional amendment." Comments like that by a Republican candidate, particularly the party front-runner, would have been unthinkable a few years ago. While Bush has taken some flak from conservative commentators and a few of his opponents, Christian conservative leaders have held their tongues so far. Max C.

Karrer, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Florida, said he's comfortable with Bush's stand. The comfort, he says, is borne of Bush's ability to win. "We have spoken to him and his supporters. We know where he is on this issue," Karrer said. "But before he can do us any good, he has to win.

What we're seeing from him now is political strategy, not policy." In short, Republicans even anti-abortion rights Republicans have adopted the Bill Clinton theory of presidential politics. "Just win," Goldstein said. "The Republicans are saying what the Democrats said in 1992. We'll forgive a little straying from the philosophical path if you win." Clinton ran to the middle in 1992, making an issue of his support for the death penalty and criticizing the moral decay of America's youth. Bush has criticized the right wing of his party for its fixation on morals and its portrayal of America as "slouching toward Gomorrah." For Democrats in this year's presidential race, abortion has become an even more important issue because among those who vote in Democratic primaries there is a heavy majority who favor abortion rights.

"I believe that the decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is a private one between a woman and her doctor, and we must protect that privacy," Bradley says on his campaign web site. "I also think teat when terrorism oc- Buchanan Trump Two questions get the tone of the abortion debate. The first: When should an abortion be permitted? The 6econd: As president, whould you appoint only Supreme Court justices who oppose abortion rights? Here are the Republican candidates answers: Gary Bauer: Opposes abortion rights, would make anti-abortion constitutional amendment a priority. George W. Bush: In cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life Is in jeopardy from the pregnancy, but would not make anti-abortion constitutional amendment a priority.

Steve Forbes: Opposes late-pregnancy abortions; would not try to force through anti-abortion constitutional amendment. Orrin Hatch: In cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is endangered. Alan Keyes: Only as a "collateral and unintended consequence" of saving a woman's life. John McCain: In cases of rape, Incest or when a woman's life Is endangered, Here are answers from the Democrats: Bill Bradley: As a legal right and private decision between a woman and her doctor. Supports federal financing of abortions for women on Medicaid.

Al Gore: Abortion is "fundamental personal right." Supports Medicaid abortion financing despite past statements to the contrary. Here are the Reform Party candidates' responses: Pat Buchanan: Opposes abortion rights, would make anti-abortion amendment a priority. Donald Trump: Considers abortion a legal right and a decision to be made by the woman and her doctor. On nominating only Supreme Court justices who oppose abortion rights, here are Republican responses: Bauer: Yes. Bush: No.

Forbes: Yes. Hatch: No. Keyes: Yes. McCain: No. Here's what the Democrats say: Bradley: No.

Gore: No. And here are the two Reform Party candidates' answers: Buchanan: Yes. Trump: No. BRIBERY from G-1 get the professor a new television. Need a driver's license? Don't bother with the driving test.

Pay $400. "The practice of graft has become pervasive and universal," said Sergei A. Arutyunov, a leading anthropologist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "Everything is bought and sold. Everyone who is in charge of something in this country, even something small and insignificant, is in a position to take bribes." The practice of bribery dates back at least 450 years, to the time of the first czars.

Despite Stalin's efforts to stamp it out, bribery survived Communist rule to flower in the past eight years under gangster capitalism. There is no tradition of paying taxes, and the government collects far less than it needs to stay afloat. Government workers, including doctors, teachers and police officers, are paid so little that they cannot support themselves on their salaries alone. For underpaid bureaucrats, each contact with a member of the public is an opportunity to extract some sort of payment The higher an official's position, the greater the opportunity to collect bribes. In a sense, it is an alternative system of taxation a kind of government by tollbooth where citizens are assessed for the specific services they require.

The more money they appear to have, the greater the bribe they are likely to pay. It is an echo of the Communist past: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. "The culture of graft is hardwired in the Russian mentality because the people have never been free in this country," Arutyunov said. "They have always had a servile psychology. In order to get something, they had to beg for it, even if it was something guaranteed by the state." Some recipients of bribes prefer to think of them as gifts and only hint at the kind of payment they expect.

Bribes for small services often take the form of a bottle of alcohol or a box of chocolates. Sometimes, the exchange is not so different from tipping. But increasingly, officials are becoming blunter, asking for and receiving dollars stuffed into envelopes. Nadezhda, like some others interviewed for this story, did not want to be identified by her last name. She was 16 when she enrolled last year in a special college preparation course for the 12 entrance exams required to get into prestigious Moscow State University.

She sopn to as little as $2. Evading arrest for drunken driving costs at least $100. The GAI's corrupt practices are so widespread that the force has long been the butt of Russian black humor. In one joke, a patrol officer asks his captain for a pay increase because his wife has just had a baby. There is no money for a raise, says the captain, who decides to help out the poor patrolman anyway.

The captain goes to his storeroom and comes back with a 25-mph speed limit sign. "Here," he says. "Take this. You can use it for a week." When Mikhail G. Delyagin worked last year as a senior aide to First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri D.

Maslyukov, he was paid $100 a month hardly enough to live on in Moscow. He supplemented his income by lecturing and writing. "Officials who can't do that either have to lead a very miserable life or take bribes," he said. "Any man from the street can come into an official's office with a draft document and get a signature and a seal for a bribe. That is probably why the government sometimes issues regulations that contradict state law." Throughout the government, Delyagin said, bribery is an organized activity in which officials receive money and pass it up through the chain of command.

"Some state agencies may actually function as smoothly working bribe-taking mechanisms, where bribes are distributed from the lowest-level bureaucrats to the very top of the organization," he said. In such a department, an employee who refuses to accept bribes won't have a job for long. "By displaying such honesty," Delyagin said, "he will disrupt the functioning of the entire her horror, that she was expected to pay the principal a bribe. "The teachers dropped a hint that even if I were a genius, I would never pass 12 exams with good grades," she said. She was sure her father would pull her from the program, but he took the demand for money philosophically.

He visited the school and gave the principal an envelope containing $250. "I had no trouble getting my certificate," she said. "Those who bribed the principal were given the answers for the written tests in math, physics and chemistry beforehand." Over the past eight years, millions of new drivers have hit the streets of Moscow, providing a great source of revenue for traffic inspectors. The method of issuing driver's licenses helps explain why the city's motorists are among the worst in the world. When Irina, a 20-year-old student, enrolled in driving school, the first thing the class learned was that no one would pass without paying $200 to the traffic inspector who gave the driving test, she said.

In the end, she paid the $200, knowing it would be cheaper than flunking and having to pay for the driving course again. When she took the exam, the inspector had her drive 20 yards and then told her to pick up her license in a week. Once they are on the road, drivers must run the gantlet of the notorious traffic police, known as the GAI. In Moscow, officers stand at major intersections and pull over motorists at random. They need no probable cause or suspicion of wrongdoing.

If the driver's documents are not in order, a bribe of $12 can solve the problem. Avoiding a speeding ticket is a bargain The Associated Press and Sentinel re Source: search. curs, such as the bombing of clinics or the shooting of doctors, it must be resisted with the full force of the federal government. Terrorism should never endanger the right to choose." Goldstein says all the rhetoric misses the real point in the abortion debate. Even the most ardent activists on both sides of the debate agree on one thing: Both sides would like to see the number of abortions decline.

"To move this issue forward, a candidate is going to have to develop a clear policy aimed at making the abortion a rare medical procedure," Goldstein said, "That's where the consensus is, but concensus doesn't necessarily win elections.".