The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 129

rJ, x- -y y--wi-f -y -t-y-t I I'l'I'lTl I nuiy nan, IT 1 Ul BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE December 5, 1976 A17 Dr. Jefferson speaks her mind ON WELFARE "Social welfare programs will only create another generation of crippled slaves." ON BUSING "It is my understanding that the Supreme Court acted (Brown v. The Board of Education in 1934) to prevent poor little black children from being bused 140 miles to and from school every day. You just can't force people to accept one another." COMMON CENTS After living in the same house for years, we tend to forget about property line stakes that separate a neighbor's yard from ours. Then comes the time when we want to sell the house build on a room or two.

That's when those "somewhere out there" stakes are important again. If they're not visible, you could be in for a surveyor's fee. Before you call him, borrow a metal detector. If the line markers were metal, you may find Boston's vocal pro-life physician ABORTION Continued from Page A9 The only child of a Methodist minister and a schoolteacher, Mildred Fay, as she was known as a child, always stood out among her classmates in the then segregated schools of Carthage. ON THE DEATH PENALTY "If life is the highest value in society and if a person destroys a life, what is the appropriate punishment? If you deliberately take a life, you automatically cancel your own." ON ABORTION Dr.

Mildred Jefferson believes that abortion is morally repugnant, that it's never good medicine, that it's never justified. Not in cases where the pregnancy jeopardizes a woman's physical health: Those are few and far between. The surgical procedure is far more dangerous and involves greater risks to the health of the mother. It's easier to see her through the pregnancy." Not in cases where pregnancy jeopardizes a woman's mental health: "Some of the biggest families are the happiest families. I recently met a woman with 15 children.

She worked nights as a waitress and was one of the most energetic women I've ever met" Not in cases where pregnancy means an unwanted child: "We have replaced the old value of the sanctity of life with the quality of life. If a woman has 10 children and is living on welfare, she has at least six or seven months to make arrangements to accommo- date the new child." Not in cases where amniocentesis or other prenatal diagnosis determines that a physical handicap such as Down's Syndrome may be present: "Although not always, the experience of caring for a handicapped child can be a positive experience for many families. In addition, analysis of the alphafoetal protein doesn't determine the severity of the defect. It may be something as minor as a cleft palate which can be corrected." Not in cases where the absence of legalized abortion would mean that a woman would seek out illegal, and dangerous, alternatives: "I've never believed all that propaganda about coat hangers and knitting needles. Women insert grossly dangerous objects into themselves, like bottles for stimulation, yet no one feels obligated to provide them with partners." Not in cases where the absence of legalized abortion would mean that poor women would suffer while middle and upper class women would be able to obtain them: "Poor women need a lot of things rich women have.

Trips to Palm Beach or, as I like to say in my speeches, fur coats." Not in cases such as one cited in Magda Denes' new book "In Necessity and Sorrow" where a 12-year-old girl is raped by her stepfather, her real father's brother: "She hasn't been any less pregnant. Will a dead reminder of the experience be any less painful than a living reminder?" ON THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT "I don't like the social concepts that will be fostered by ratification of the amendment I think its passage will mean that we can all look forward to dull, drab patterns of existence very much like those created by socialism, an alienation of the traditional relationship between men and women. I think it will enable the courts to take away the body of protective law that's been established. It means that employers will be able to reduce privileges accorded to women. For example, I read recently of a company in Washington which took the lounges out of ladies rooms." OUR FALL FASHION CLEARNACE luggage in airports and take care of the checkbook." They live in the Back Bay and have no children.

When asked if she regrets that, Jefferson replied: "I believe that biology is destiny." The couple used to have season tickets at the symphony but they ended up giving them away so often there are weekly trips to Washington and out-of-state speaking engagements that they gave them up. Jefferson has a favorite Pogo cartoon, one which she feels best illustrates her per Jefferson went to Texas College, a black Methodist institution in nearby Tyler, and was graduated in three years. Dr. Jule Hancock, a classmate and now a professor at that institution, claimed it was always a struggle to be in the same class with her. "She had a certain air about her.

I think she knew how to behave in front of a crowd because she'd performed. She had been pushed as a child," Hancock said. "But she had such poise and dignity when she spoke. Most of us would have been frightened to get up in public." Another former classmate, Margaret Surrey Fin-gal, an educational administrator at Mississippi State Valley University, said she always expected Jefferson to make history. "She always said the right thing and did the right thing.

You'd never say a bad word in front of her," Fingal explained. "When Mildred Fay was growing up it was a disgrace for a girl to get pregnant if she wasn't married. Times have changed. But I'm not surprised by her position on abortion. What does surprise me is that she doesn't look any different." Trim, petite and immaculately groomed, Jefferson looks younger than 49 years, an age which she won't ad- DR.

NEIL SOLOMON Congress have failed to date, Jefferson is optimistic that is will happen sometime in the future. Plans are on the drawing board to increase The National Right to Life Committee's budget from $450,000 to $1.2 million in the next year, patterned after Common Cause's effort. She says she's never performed an abortion, although she cleaned up once after one, a procedure she describes graphically. Her interest in the subject was triggered six years ago when the local chapter of the American Medical Association was considering a resolution in favor of liberalizing the abortion laws. That's when her friend, Dr.

rockett, called her up and asked her to sign a petition against such a resolution. "To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure where she stood at the time," Rockett explained. "When I called her up, I discovered that we were on the same side. We'd never discussed it before, although we'd been good sonal philosophy. Some of the late Walt Kelly's characters are engaged in putting out a fire.

At the end of the brigade, a little white rabbit stands holding the end of the hose. He is clearly not carrying his own share of its weight: "I am not like that rabbit I am simply not a hose carrier." Mildred Fay Jefferson has come a long way in life and she plans to go a lot farther, just as she always has, by setting her mind to it. She doesn't want anyone to do for her what she thinks she can or should do for herself. LASHES NAILS by 2240 "FLATTER YOUR EYES" with LOVELY HANDMADE PERMANENT LASHES NO MORE MASCARA YOUR COLOR AND LENGTH BE NATURAL or GLAMOROUS CHOOSE YOUR them pushed into the soil: 5 mi Where the Tux you rent fits you right. VESTED TUXEDOS $24 2 LOCATIONS MAIDEN 72 EXCHANGE St 321-7020 HANOVER.

RT. S3, 826-5155 off. hanovb mi BEACON STREET BROOKLINE yd "I 1 SUITE 208 MEZZANINE 80 Boylston Boston, Mass. 02116 Can testing end carnage' mit to. A hairnet covers most of her head and she often wears a ribbon tied in a bow.

Her voice is well-modulated and without any trace of a Texas accent. She received a masters from Tufts before going on to Harvard where she decided to specialize in surgery, one of the areas of medicine that has been made most difficult for women. After several setbacks, she completed the requirements for board certification, in 1972. "Surgeons tend to chose doctors in their own image for chief residencies," she said. "In that way they tend to be conservative." Her appointment at BU is not a paid appointment and her teaching activities, like her practice, have been limited because of her commitment to the right to life movement.

She said she sees a few patients and occasionally assists other surgeons during their operations. Although the movement's efforts to engineer a right to life amendment through people actually can or can't do. Dr. Shlensky thinks that that simple, practical tests could be devised to spot things like senility, retardation, brain injury or hallucinations. Another group that would be extremely important to identify, Dr.

Shlensky says, is people with suicidal tendencies. They are so obsessed with their own problems that they are likely to ignore the rights and safety of others. They would be harder to spot than the first group, but he believes frequent traffic violations can provide leads to self -destructive or just plain destructive persons. Then, too, there is the tremendous problem of alcohol and other drugs. Maybe ways could be found to identify hazardous drivers in this category before they do their damage.

For instance, a government study has drawn a picture of the drinking driver most likely to cause a fatal acci as onCy GIFTS THAT LAST! friends for several years. We had a lot in common, two women surgeons, and we always have a lot to talk about. She's a loyal and true friend." When Jefferson was asked for a list of people who might have some insight about her, Rockett's name was the only name offered. She guards her private life religiously. Her parents, who are divorced, both live in Rox-bury on different floors of the same building.

Her father is still active in the Methodist church and her mother isn't well. She regards their separation with some bitterness: "They were very selfish." She has been married since 1963 to Shane Cunningham, whom she met on a skiing trip. Cunningham, a white real estate manager, is active in the right to life movement and served as treasurer of The National Right to Life Committee convention in Boston last year. "I like being protected. I consider it a step down to" equality," she said.

"I like someone else to carry my aJrar. n.on i SATURDAY ESX5ZS BSH AMF PICiBfl VMM to Vi OFF COATS SUITS DRESSES GOWNS PANT SUITS RAINWEAR No Charges-All Sales Final 1620 I l. Drexel Heritage Dear Dr. Solomon: Isn't there anything we can do to keep dangerous drivers off the road? Our little niece was badly injured recently by a speeding driver, and as far as I can make out, all he will get is a six-month suspension of his license Bertha M. I entirely agree with you that much better ways are needed to get irresponsible drivers off our highways.

Traffic accidents take a ter-rible annual toll in Americaabout 55,000 people killed and two million or more disabled. State licensing authorities are, of course, able to screen out people with physical defects like very poor eye-, sight that are obvious handicaps and that are also easily picked up in simple tests. Perhaps we should make a concerted effort to spot heavy drinkers and other people with mental and emotional problems who are likely to cause accidents. Some interesting proposals were made recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr. Ronald Shlensky, a psychiatrist at Northwestern University and an adviser to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles.

He notes that many states list psychiatric conditions which, in theory, affect getting a license. But the emphasis, he feels, is more on the listing of disease names and less on what 1. Tel. 617 426 o.ia to 6:00 Cabot dent: He is a single, separated or divorced man between 24 and 35 years of age who drives a rather old car and has "overly aggressive" drinking habits. He tends to smash up in the early morning, weekend hours.

How this portrait would be put to use in a licensing bureau is another question. But, in any event, drunken drivers are seen often enough by policemen and should be dealt with more effectively than they are at present. Perhaps technology will come to our rescue. According to Automotive Engineering cars in the 1980s are likely to have computers that could stop the vehicle if the driver seemed to be drunk or otherwise incapacitated. ESBENSEN'S DANISH BAKERY, 127 WATER ST.

NEWBURYPORT, 465-0039 Complete line of authentic Danish baking. Krlngler (wlenerbrod), kager (luxury pastries for parties). Open all day, Sat. Sun. Clrrowllea 358-7333 2354520 A.

SECRETARY B. DESK C. DESK CHAIR D. CURIO CABINET E. BARCALOUNGER F.

COCKTAIL TABLE One of the great ones. BEFORE YOU DECORATE BE SURE TO SEE OUR UNPARALLELED SELECTION OF CHRISTMAS DECORATING MATERIALS POINSETTIAS CYCLAMEN FRESH GREENS WREATHS ROPING HOLLY LIVING. CUT AND ARTIFICIAL TREES DISTINCTIVE ORNAMENTS SgGENUINE Sef ENGRAVED (i FOR THE PRICE OF I RAISED PRINTING Now the elegance of the "deb-fi set" at prices that will aston-ZSft polish you. Quality WVihip, with satisfaction ti Guaranteed! Jr CUT FLOWERS CUSTOM ARRANGEMENTS RIBBON CANDLES CRAFT MATERIALS 'filENDLY NOTE: TO AVOID SUNDAY CROWDS JISIT US WEEKDAY EVENINGS 'TIL 9 WHERE QUALITY COSTS NO MORE wouse ft Ar ROWHEAD Route 20, Waytnd Jl JL 66 Burlington Mall Road, Burlinpton, Mass. Telephone 273-2600 i'i I.