The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 6

A-6 March 12, 1970 HONOLULU ADVERTISER ifs legal now. to have an abortion here It is not beyond the realm of possibility that a thriving business might spring up to provide false affidavits for out-of-State women seeking abortions here. Two lawyers highly respected by their colleagues for their knowledge of constitutional law were asked if they consider the residency requirement constitutional. "I have no doubt that it is constitutional," said attorney Thomas W. Flynn.

"It's not discriminatory in that a state which traditionally has prohibited abortion can attach whatever reasonable rules it finds appropriate when it changes the law." Attorney Robert G. Dodge said: "In our State Legislature reapportionment case, the Supreme Court acknowledged that a state could set up any residency requirement it wanted in regard to voting." BUT DODGE POINTED out that there are no guidelines about residency in a criminal case. He said: "There might be a legal argument over the fact that if you've lived here for 60 days and have an abortion you have committed a crime, but if you've lived here for 90 days you It isn't expected that the new law will cause any noticeable shortage of hospital beds. Kapiolani can handle six or seven abortions a day, or more than 2,100 a year, with its present facilities. If there are no medical complications, a woman can have an abortion in one day, without tying up a hospital bed overnight.

If she checks into the hospital early in the morning she can be back home that evening. FOR SOME HOSPITALS, the new law will mean no changes at all. For instance, St. Francis Hospital a Roman Catholic facility has announced it will not permit abortions there. Tripler Hospital, which serves military personnel and their dependents, has asked the Surgeon General of the Army to decide whether it can permit abortions.

One officer's wife already has requested an abortion at Tripler and has been turned down. She now is arranging for her abortion at Kapiolani, but she won't get the benefit of Tripler's free medical care. LEGALIZED ABORTION poses some sociological questions. For instance: Will Hawaii become the nation's "abortion mecca," in spite of the 90-day residency requirement, until other states have passed similar laws? Enterprising Mainland tour operators already are said to be contemplating package abortion flights to the Islands. How could the average Mainland woman afford to live in Hawaii for 90 days while fuKilling the residency requirement? Some might get jobs.

Others might have to go on welfare, becoming public charges. Others may find a way to lie successfully about having lived her 90 days and remain only a short time. Will legalized abortions hurt our tourist image? Some say Mainland women might hesitate to visit Hawaii because their neighbors back home would suspect their real reason for making the trip was to have an abortion. Others say the new law may bolster our sagging tourist economy, bringing more women here and more affluent ones, who can stay three months. Experts can make educated guesses about the medical and legal aspects of becoming the first state to legalize abortion.

But no one will be able to answer the sociological questions until the law has been in effect long enough for thorough studies to be made. Advertiser Photo by Roy Ito By GENE HUNTER Advertiser Staff Writer Any woman who has lived in Hawaii for at least 90 days now can have an abortion, provided her doctor and a hospital approve. The operation will be clean, fast and as safe as any other minor surgery in a hospital can be. In countries where abortions have been legal for some time, doctors say they are safer than tonsilectomies. Hawaii has become the first state to legalize abortion, although others are expected to follow suit.

IX THEORY, the bill passed by the State Legislature and allowed by Gov. John A. Burns to become law without his signature will do away with the illegal backroom abortion which has been a shabby part of society for as long as women have been becoming pregnant. But most authorities agree that it won't really do this, any more than the repeal of Prohibition completely eliminated bootleg liquor. Like the repeal of Prohibition, the repeal of almost all abortion legislation legalizes, sanitizes and sets up standards to control what has been an illegal, unsanitary and uncontrolled underground activity.

But illegal abortions seem likely to continue, primarily for economic reasons. DOCTORS AXD HOSPITALS say abortions will cost somewhere between $265 and $320. Backroom abortionists who work for less undoubtedly will continue to ply their unsavory trade, at least among the ignorant and the impoverished. "The uneducated woman who doesn't realize the risks may well prefer to go to an illegal abortionist if he does the job cheaper," one gynecologist told The Advertiser. But the woman who can afford to pay for good medical care now can be assured of an abortion under the best of conditions.

SO CAN THE WOMAN on welfare. For many years Hawaii law permitted an abortion only if the mother's life was endangered because of pregnancy. Those were called "therapeutic abortions" and welfare clients had their bills for such operations paid by the State. The State now will pay for an abortion performed on a welfare client who simply does not want a child according to Edwin Tam. public welfare administrator for the Department of Social Services.

"Families on welfare are indigent and we pay the cost of their medical bills." Tam said. "If their medical bill is for an abortion, we will pay the cost just as we would for any other operation." IS THIS AX UNWARRANTED expenditure of public funds? To find out. let's review some statistics. It is estimated that there will be 2.000 abortions a year in Hawaii as a result of the recently passed bill. Approximately 5 per cent of the residents of Hawaii are on welfare.

If 5 per cent of the abortions or 100 a year-are performed on welfare clients at a cost of S300 each, that would be 30,000 a year in taxpayers' money. But that is a short-term cost. Cash payments to welfare recipients average $695.96 per person per year or $12,523.68 for a welfare client's first 18 years of life. For 100 persons the same number who might not be born to welfare recipients because of the new abortion law that is more than $1.25 million. IT WILL BE WOMEN in the middle-income group those struggling to stay above the poverty level but still far from affluent who will find abortion a major expense.

One leading gynecologist estimates that the cheapest hospital cost for 'an abortion will be $125, the most expen- Kapiolani Maternity Hospital, where doctors expect to handle 1,500 abortions a year. question whether the hospital should be concerned about him, either. But Kapiolani has established a policy that the father's rights in the matter will be taken under consideration before an abortion is permitted. However, doctors say it will be a simple matter for the woman to lie to say she is not married or that her husband is dead or out of town. SHE ALSO MAY LIE about something else the length of time she has been in Hawaii.

The new law permits an abortion only after the woman has lived in Hawaii for 90 days. Kapiolani will require an affidavit of residency, although that is not required by the law. "Who is going to do the enforcing?" one doctor asked of the residency requirement. "To me. it's almost impossible to enforce.

Just because a person is from out of the State doesn't change her need for medical attention. "If a woman asked me, I would have to treat her whether she was from Hawaii or California and whether her trouble was pregnancy or pneumonia." SAID ANOTHER: "I don't have a detective service. I'm not going out to see where she lives and how long she's been living there." weeks since a woman menstruated, the physician will have to consult with another specialist to determine the best method of terminating the pregnancy. If more than 20 weeks have passed since the last menstrual period, the hospital's Abortion Board will have to approve the operation. Abortion then wiU be permitted only for ''compelling medical or social reasons," a hospital spokesman said.

WHEN LEGAL and medical requirements are met. abortions will be performed at Kapiolani on demand. But the hospital would rather see a pregnancy prevented than aborted. It does not relish the idea of becoming known as the abortion capital of the Pacific. For that reason, Kapiolani is launching an intensive family planning program for those who want to avoid having more children.

Birth control information will be piped into each maternity patient's room via closed circuit television and classes will be held to teach contraceptive techniques to husbands and wives. WHAT ABOUT the forgotten figure in an abortion the father? What if he wants the baby but his wife doesn't? The law doesn't say anything about the father, so some doctors A Senate in first step to end housing crisis The new abortion law may put Oahu's only abortion counseling service out of business. The Clergy Counseling Service for Unwanted Pregnancies, operated by nine Island clergymen, began service in December. The members will meet March 31 to decide whether to continue. The Rev.

Gene Bridges wants to drop the service. "I'm not interested in continuing," he said. lature for a wide-scale attack on the housing shortage. SEVEN OF the measures reached the Senate floor Tuesday, including two concurrent resolutions adopted and sent to the House. Three other bills calling for appropriations went to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for further study.

A fourth measure, exempting experimental housing projects from State statutes and county ordinances as a means of encouraging a builder to find cheaper ways to build, was recommitted to the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Housing. Gill urges remap for school board In a unanimous vote, the State Senate passed and sent to the House of Representatives yesterday the first of a lengthy list of measures designed to attack the State's housing shortage. Sponsored by Gov. John A. Burns' housing committee, the measure exempts public housing projects from the Hawaii products law, which requires the use of Island products wherever possible in State projects.

Burns has sent 26 bills and four resolutions to the Legis- Basic Studies Program won't be eliminated The U.S. Office of Education has restored funds to support the Basic Studies Program, following completion of a review he requested, Rep. Spark Matsunaga reports. Institutions with the Basic Studies Program, including a school board in Mis- up of Advertiser Photo by Charles Onamura Legislative worker surveys part of 3,000 bills introduced. education, mortgage measures under wire the State Department of Land and Natural Resources to preserve "samples of all the special types of environments which make Hawaii unique." A resolution asking for full-scale public hearings on the Waikiki beach-widening project.

Creation of a Hawaii Bicentennial Commission to arrange the 1976 celebration of the nation's 200th birthday. Outlawing the charging of points, loan fees and finder's fees on home mortgages. Creation of a Natural Area Reserves System under sive $150 provided there are no major complications. The doctor who performs the operation can be expected to charge anywhere from $140 to $170. Unless her medical insurance pays most of the cost of an abortion, the middle-income woman will find it difficult to raise the money for her abortion.

The State's two major medical insurance plans HMSA and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan still are trying to determine how to handle this new medical cost. THE PLANS ALWAYS have paid at least part of the cost of a therapeutic abortion HMSA. for instance, has paid up to $100 in hospital fees and up to $50 for the doctor's bill. Another who will find abortion difficult to achieve will be the unmarried girl under 20 who lacks her parents' consent for the operation. The abortion bill didn't mention her, but other laws prohibit doctors and hospitals from performing surgery on minors without the consent of a parent or guardian.

Married girls under 20 aren't affected by this law; they need only their husband's consent for surgery. This is one of several seeming inconsistencies in the new-abortion law, and some doctors are miffed because they were not consulted by the State Legislature conference committee that drew up the final version of the bill. The doctors say they might have helped the committee clarify some of the language. HAWAII'S NEW LAW permits an abortion only on a "non-viable fetus" that is, one unable to survive outside the mother's body. But the law is silent on when viability begins.

And doctors don't agree with each other on viability. One physician has told the Legislature that a fetus which is 15 or 16 weeks old can survive for a few minutes and thus, under strict interpretation of the law, would be considered viable. Some doctors consider that a fetus is viable at 20 weeks. Others say viability doesn't begin until the 28th week. BECAUSE OF THE several questions the new law does not answer, hospitals which will permit abortions have drawn up guidelines which are more stringent than those intended by the lawmakers.

Since Kapiolani Maternity Gynecological Hospital is the only maternity hospital in the State, it undoubtedly will be the scene of most of Hawaii's legal abortions. There, doctors make, the "guesstimate" that they will be called upon to perform some 1,500 such operations a year. It is believed that about 500 a year will be performed in other hospitals. While the new State law permits any licensed doctor to perform an operation in a hospital, Kapiolani isn't that lenient. Only doctors with "major privileges" that is, specialists in obstetrics and gynecology -r- have been permitted to perform therapeutic abortions there.

That rule won't change now that other abortions are legal. Just "any doctor" won't be permitted to operate. KAPIOLANI WILL permit specialists to perform abortions without restrictions up to 12 weeks after a woman's last menstrual period. That would mean that the fetus would be about 14 or 15 weeks old. If it has been more than 12 weeks but fewer than 20 Lt.

Gov. Thomas P. Gill yesterday called on the Legislature to reapportion the State Board of Education during this session. Gill, who is in charge of the State's elections, sent his message to the Legislature after the Attorney General's office ruled that the makeup of the school board is illegal. School board candidates will be elected this fall.

"If action is not taken, the entire school board could be subject to challenge either before or after the election," Gill told the legislators. "Not only could this result in a disruption of the election but it would also cause considerable harm to the effectiveness of the board." NOBUKI KAMIDA, deputy attorney general, wrote the opinion that the Board of Education is improperly apportioned. He based the opinion on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the make- souri. The court ruled that the Missouri law did not give every qualified voter an equal opportunity to vote for school board representation.

The court added: "When members of an elected body are chosen from separate districts, each district must be established on a basis which will insure, as far as practicable, that equal numbers of voters can vote proportionately for equal numbers of people." KAMIDA POINTED out that under present Board of Education apportionment, there are more than 114,000 registered voters in Oahu's 3rd District, but only between 20,000 and 30.000 in other districts on the Island. He said: "A voter in the smallest Oahu district (the 5th, with 20,665 registered voters) votes for four members, the same as a voter in the largest Oahu district (the 3rd, with 114,035." the University of Hawaii, were notified last September that funds would not be allocated in the 1970 fiscal year. Matsunaga urged Office of Education officials to reconsider the decision. Elimination of the program, he said, would have curtailed development of teacher training programs in foreign languages, English as a second language, read residency clause 'hard to defend' State legislators tossed a wide assortment of bills into the hopper this week just ahead of the deadline for introduction of new legislate. New bills introduced included: A Republican educational program callin-g for boarding facilities at all Neighbor Island schools, courses in en-vironmental and ecological issues and a feasibility study of pupil breakfast programs for some schools.

4no-f ault' auto insurance bills are introduced Bills to establish the "no-fault" system of automobile insurance in Hawaii were introduced in the Senate Monday by Senate President David C. McClung. The measures, drafted by the American Insurance Association, are designed to expedite the processing of injury or property damage claims growing out of auto accidents. ing, and English for disadvantaged students. The University of Hawaii would have had to discontinue its foreign language institute and fellowship programs for teachers in these fields, he said.

biU would allow home breweries Drinkers could make up to 200 gallons of wine and beer for personal use under a bill introduced Monday by State Rep. James H. Wakatsuki, D-llth Dist. (Kalihi-Moana-lua). Present State law does not permit the manufacture of such beverages.

increase in benefits urged residency requirements for welfare applicants. At present, applicants for most State and county jobs cannot be hired unless they have lived in Hawaii at least three years. The only major exceptions are teachers, who may be hired from the Mainland. Devens urged the State legislators to take a bold step and repeal the residency requirement altogether a move which is probably politically unfeasible in the light of opposition from local government employe groups. The City's top legal officer said yesterday that Hawaii's three-year State residency requirement for government employes would be "hard to defend" if ever challenged in court.

Paul Devens, Honolulu Corporation Counsel, told a House Public Health Committee hearing yesterday that the residency clause could well be ruled unconstitutional on the same grounds that the U.S. Supreme Court used last year to invalidate sent to the House Judiciary Committee. The committee said the "present limit of $10,000 for disfigurement would not adequately indemnify a person who is so severely scarred and disfigured that his ability to secure a job is seriously affected." A 50 per cent increase in workmen's compensation benefits for "disfigurement" has been recommended by the House Labor Committee. A bill raising the maximum benefit for a disfiguring injury from $10,000 to $15,000 was endorsed and.