Copyright 2000 The Kansas City Star Co.
THE KANSAS
CITY STAR
October 14, 2000, Saturday METROPOLITAN
EDITION
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B4
LENGTH: 342 words
HEADLINE:
Forum urges women to study issues;
Speakers list questions they say voters
should ask
BYLINE: JAMES HART; The Kansas City Star
BODY:
With only weeks before the November
elections, female voters
should focus closely on issues, say several
organizations associated
with women's interests.
"The issues that
are important in this election are triply
important to women," said Mary
O'Halloran, moderator of a forum that
addressed questions in education,
economics, health care and
reproductive rights earlier this week. Featured
speakers at the
forum, held at the Midwest Research Institute, offered about
50
audience members their thoughts on what female voters should be
asking candidates.
The forum was sponsored by Planned Parenthood of
Kansas and
Mid-Missouri, the League of Women Voters, the American
Association of
University Women and Missouri NARAL.
Too many people
buy into the stereotype that women choose
candidates based on looks or
personality, O'Halloran said. Campaign
commercials skip the issues, and so
does news coverage, which tends
to highlight the race itself, she said.
The speakers - who included the president of the Greater Kansas
City
AFL-CIO and the vice president of the Kansas-National Education
Association
- said female voters should ask:
What will candidates do about
modernizing schools? How will they
attract more people to teaching? What
about teacher pay?
Will candidates support a living wage? Equal pay for
men and
women? Medical leave for parents caring for sick children?
How will candidates make health insurance more
affordable? Is
health insurance a right or a privilege?
"If voting your conscience doesn't work, vote your pocketbook,"
said
Bridgette Williams, the AFL-CIO president for Greater Kansas
City.
Planned Parenthood distributed petitions supporting efforts to
keep
state funds accessible for family planning services through
public and
private clinics, equality in insurance coverage for
prescription contraceptives, ready access to emergency
contraception
and abortion rights.
- To reach James Hart, call (816)
234-4902 or send e-mail to
jhart@kcstar.com
LOAD-DATE: October 14, 2000 
