c. 1997 Religion News Service

Psychological study examines well-being after abortions

(RNS) A psychological study has found that the well-being of women who have abortions is dependent most on what their emotional state was before they became pregnant rather than religion or race.”The major predictor of a woman’s well-being after an abortion, regardless of race or religion, is (her) level of well-being before becoming pregnant,”the study concluded.

The study, conducted by psychologists Nancy Felipe Russo of Arizona State University and Amy J. Dabul of Phoenix College, analyzed data of 5,295 women ages 14 to 24 in 1979 and were interviewed annually for eight years. The findings were reported in the current edition of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, a journal of the American Psychological Association.

The question of the psychological impact of having an abortion has been a sharply disputed element in the national debate over legalized abortion.

The researchers found that the type of religion to which women who had an abortion belonged generally did not make a difference in their post-abortion well-being.

But when they focused specifically on how having an abortion affected Catholic women compared to other women, they found complex answers.”Non-Catholic women who had high church attendance and one abortion had the highest self-esteem,”they found.”Non-Catholic women who had low church attendance and repeat abortions had the lowest self-esteem.” They also discovered that non-Catholic women who had one abortion and attended church often had”significantly higher self-esteem”than Catholic women who were infrequent church attenders and who had no abortions.”Although highly religious Catholic women are slightly more likely to exhibit post-abortion psychological distress than other women, this fact is explained by lower pre-existing well-being,”the psychologists concluded.

They added that their study could have implications for mental health professionals.”This raises concerns about post-abortion counseling services and self-help groups that focus on abortion as the source of psychological trauma rather than providing a nonjudgmental therapeutic process,”they said.”Such a process should explore the origins of women’s mental health problems in events occurring before as well as during and after the experience of unwanted pregnancy and abortion.” National Right to Life Committee President Wanda Franz told The New York Times that she disputes the researchers’ findings because their work”does not measure if a woman is mentally healthy.” Franz, who has a doctorate in developmental psychology, added,”This requires a specialist who performs certain tests, not a self-assessment of how the woman feels about herself.”

IRS to audit politically active nonprofits

(RNS) The Internal Revenue Service plans to increase its audits of nonprofit groups based on media reports of a number of organizations’ political activities.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the IRS plan says:”During the election cycle of 1994-96, numerous news articles were published concerning exempt organizations’ intervention in political activities and their increased electioneering efforts.” The IRS has instructed its offices to begin local audits that will focus on”specific situations of potential noncompliance”by nonprofits that news articles indicated were participating in political activity.”Organizations that are exempt under certain tax laws may not engage in activities either in support of or in opposition to a candidate for elected public office,”said IRS spokesman Frank Keith.

Asked to define what”political activity”might prompt an audit, Keith responded,”It’s a facts-and-circumstances issue that’s decided on a case-by-case basis.” Conservative organizations have wondered whether certain groups are being singled out for audits by a Democratic administration. The agency said its audits of tax-exempt groups _ which are uncommon _ are not politically motivated but rather are merely dealing with allegations about noncompliance with tax law.

The Journal said it has learned that conservative organizations including the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and National Review (which is a magazine, not a nonprofit group) are being audited by the IRS.

Poll shows American Orthodox Jewish support for Hebron pullout

(RNS) A slim majority of American Orthodox Jews support Israel’s recent decision to pull out of most of the West Bank city of Hebron, according to a new poll released by the Israel Policy Forum.

The poll, released Tuesday (Feb. 11), found that 52 percent of American Orthodox Jews either”strongly”or”somewhat strongly”back the Hebron accord, which involved Israeli withdrawal from about 80 percent of the city. The survey, conducted Feb. 2-3, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent.

Orthodox Jews, both in the United States and Israel, have been among the most vocal critics of any Israeli withdrawal from Hebron because the city contains the reputed burial place of Judaism’s founders, the biblical patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah. Some 400 Orthodox Jews live in Hebron amid more than 100,000 Palestinians.

Jonathan Jacoby, executive vice president of Israel Policy Forum, a liberal, New York-based organization that supports the Arab-Israeli peace process, said the survey shows that American Orthodox Jews _ who comprise less than 10 percent of the 5.6-million member American Jewish community _ are not monolithic.”There’s a myth about that says all Orthodox Jews do not back the peace process,”Jacoby told Religion News Service.”The truth is closer to the Orthodox being about split down the middle, with about half viewing the situation more pragmatically. This group sees the Hebron accord as a practical compromise, since the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the holiest place in Hebron, is still controlled by Israel.” Non-Orthodox American Jews favored the Hebron pullout by even greater margins, according to the poll. About 72 percent of Reform Jews backed the accord, while 63 percent of Reconstructionist and 62 percent of Conservative Jews who responded to the survey also supported the agreement.

The poll also found that 81 percent of all American Jews support President Clinton’s active involvement in the peace process, 68 percent have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 50 percent hold a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Oral Roberts students won’t be disciplined for mosque incident

(RNS) Oral Roberts University has decided not to discipline more than two-dozen students who surrounded the Islamic Society of Tulsa, Okla., during the recently completed Muslim holy month of Ramadan and prayed for the conversion of Muslims to Christianity.

Jesse Pisor, a spokesman for the conservative evangelical university, told The New York Times Tuesday (Feb. 11) that although the students trespassed on Islamic Society property they did not intend to intimidate or overtly proselytize.

The incident took place the night of Feb. 5. Students surrounded the mosque on three sides, placed their hands on walls and doors and prayed for the conversion of Muslims. The students left without incident after police were called to the scene.

The Rev. Bill Shuler, who heads religious services at Oral Roberts, sent a letter of apology to the mosque.”I assure you that the actions of these students were neither sanctioned by the university nor do their actions represent the spirit of the university’s mission,”he wrote.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations based in Washington, said Oklahoma Muslims are particularly sensitive to such incidents”because of the anti-Muslim hysteria following the tragic bombing two years ago (of the federal building) in Oklahoma City.” Awad was referring to initial reports that follow the bombing that said that Middle East or Islamic terrorists were probably responsible.

Iranian foundation raises bounty for murder of author Salman Rushdie

(RNS) An Iranian charitable foundation has increased the reward offered to anyone who kills Salman Rushdie, the British author accused of blasphemy in Iran because of his novel”The Satanic Verses.” Tehran’s daily Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported Wednesday (Feb. 12) that the 15th Khordad Foundation had increased the bounty on Rushdie from $2 million to $2.5 million.

In 1989, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, imposing a death sentence on Rushdie for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his novel. The foundation then offered a reward to anyone carrying out the edict against Rushdie.”The prize for executing Salman Rushdie is not limited to Muslims. Anybody _ Muslim or non-Muslim and even (Rushdie’s) bodyguards _ who carries it out will receive the prize,”said foundation leader Ayatollah Hassan Sanei, according to the Reuter news agency.

Update: Chinese say 10 people killed in Muslim riot

(RNS) The Chinese government Wednesday (Feb. 12) released its first official account of a Muslim protest last week in the remote Xinjiang province, admitting that 10 people died and more than 140 others were injured.

Western news services reported that young Muslims of the Uighur ethnic group in the city of Yining went on a rampage beginning last Tuesday (Feb.4), burning stores, smashing vehicles and beating up ethnic Han Chinese citizens. China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency has not reported on the riots.

According to Xinjiang government spokesman Liu Yisheng, the rioting was planned and inspired by”a small number of enemy elements,”the Associated Press reported.

Liu said by the time police took control of the situation Thursday (Feb. 6), 10 people had been killed, 132 citizens, mostly Han Chinese, had been beaten, and a dozen law enforcement officials injured. Liu refused to say how many people were arrested in the conflict.

The government’s account differed from reports attributed to local police and pro-Uighur independence groups in exile, which suggested higher numbers of deaths and injuries. One Kazakstan-based independence group said as many as 300 had been killed. The same group also claimed that the violence was sparked after 30 young Uighurs were executed in front of 1,000 spectators, the AP said.

Xinjiang has a long history of tension between its native population of Turkic-speaking Uighurs and the ruling ethnic Han Chinese, who make up only 38 percent of the region’s population.

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Robert H. Schuller

(RNS) The Rev. Robert H. Schuller has been credited by President Clinton with inspiring the president to use a verse from the biblical book of Isaiah about being”the repairer of the breach”to mark the start of Clinton’s second term. Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., spoke to The Washington Post about Clinton’s use of the verse:”He thought he grabbed the Bible verse, but I think the Bible verse grabbed him. I said to him in the last few days, `I wish you could see yourself with a pastoral heart, not a political heart.’ And by golly, that’s what he’s doing. I don’t think he knows it … but with the verse, he’s a pastor to the nation, not a politician.”

MJP END RNS