In spite of all this, Rocawich insists thatn”Carol’s safe, illegal abortion was still anhorrifying experience.” “Deborah” obtainednan abortion in 1967 from “a trainednphysician” with a legitimate practice inna city in the Midwest. “Deborah” saysnthat her abortion “was not painful… Indon’t remember pain.” “Barbara” had annabortion in Philadelphia in the 1960’s.n”Barbara’s” abortion had to be certifiedna “therapeutic” procedure by a psychiatrist.n”I had to break down and cry. Saynmy life will be ruined,” recalled “Barbara.”nIn short order she admitted that she hadn”embellished” her story, “but not bynmuch.” (Her embellishments are indeedntrivial when compared with the mendacitiesnroutinely wrought by the abortionrightsnmovement.)nRocawich’s roster of victims includesnKathryn Marshall, a woman who wasnraped in Dallas in 1971. Marshall didn’tnbecome pregnant, but we are asked tonconsider her a victim because abortionsnwere illegal in 1971 and she insists thatnshe would have gotten an illegal abortion.n”Ginnie,” a young woman who went tonCanada to receive an abortion, is alsonmentioned by Rocawich. In all, her paradenof horrors includes one woman whonforced herself to miscarry, four womennwho received safe, clean, illegal abortions,nand one woman who never became pregnant.nIf these stories are representativenof “thousands” of others, where are allnthe victims?nElements of the pro-abortion movementnare laboring to create victims.n”Menstrual extraction,” a technique ofnearly self-abortion described by writernCharlotte Allen as “a fad of the earlyn1970’s bra-burning days,” is being taughtnonce again. Part of the “back-alley holocaust”nlegend has it that many womenndied after being driven to self-abort. ButnSalt Lake City gynecologist (and abortionist)nGrant Bagley maintains thatn”menstmal extraction, as it is being taughtnby women’s groups, is as safe as a legalnabortion performed at the same stage ofnpregnancy.” If this is true, another elementnof the “back-alley holocaust” mythnis exposed as a fabrication. If it is untrue,nBagley and the feminists who are instructingnwomen in self-abortion techniquesnare culpably indifferent with regardnto the health and safety of women.nThe efforts of Bagley and his ideologicalnkindred may indeed produce anstream of victims, and the NEA will sustainnthe efforts of “artists” like Biniaz toncanonize such victims as martyrs in then6/CHRONICLESnstruggle against the “patriarchy.” Surelynthe same First Amendment that isnregularly tortured into forbidding the publicndisplay of Judeo-Christian symbolsnshould prohibit the public subsidy of proabortionnmythology.n—William N. GriggnNEOCONSERVATIVE RepublicannGovernor John Engler of Michigan inheritedna $1.1 billion budget deficit fromnhis predecessor, moderate DemocratnJames Blanchard, when he took office lastnJanuary 1,1991. Engler eked out a narrown17,595-vote victory over Blanchard bynpromising relief from Michigan’s burdensomenproperty tax structure, fourthnhighest in the United States, to ReagannDemocrats in middle-class areas like MacombnCounty and Downriver Detroit. Tonbalance the state budget and reduce propertyntaxes, Engler proposed spending cuts,nincluding abolition of all state fundingnfor the arts, action that would have madenMichigan unique among the 50 states.nEngler’s proposal raised a maelstromnof opposition from artists receiving statensubsidies and others on the cultural left.nLeon Cohan, chairman of the MichigannCouncil for the Arts, termed thenproposal to abolish state funding “a mishmashnof semi-intellectual, reactionarynbaloney.” Sam Sachs II, director of thenDetroit Institute of Arts, said the actionntended to confirm the state-subsidized artncommunity’s suspicions that “yahoos arentaking over.” Nancy Malitz, arts criticnfor the “Accent” section of the DetroitnNews, a poor would-be imitation of then”Style” section of the Washington Post,nframed the proposal as proof “of an anti-intellectualnattitude that makes peoplenuneasy about the arts as a form of expression.”nThis is a problem limited tonAmerica, Malitz complained, not Europe,nwhere state-subsidized artists arentreated as “visionaries.”nThe anti-Engler frenzy built into ancrescendo on May 1, when one thousandndemonstrators staged an “arts attack”nat the state capitol in Lansing against thenproposal. Much of their anger was directednat D. Joseph Olson, an Engler supporter,nattorney, and insurance executive whonserves as a director of the Lansing SymphonynOrchestra. In an adversarial columnnentitled “‘Arts Ogres’ and Killer Bees,” Olsonncharacterized arts subsidy-seekers asn”killer bees… driven not by reason butnby some instinctive urge to attack anyonenwho disturbs the hive and to sting andnnnsting again.” Cultural leftists attacked Olsonnand Engler as “fire-breathing,” “misguidednzealots” adhering to a “stringentlynideological, shortsighted anti-arts policy.”nDespite the rhetorical onslaught, Englernsigned an executive order abolishingnthe Michigan Council for the Arts. OnnMay I, the Republican-controlled Senatenfailed to overturn Engler’s order, despitenthe “arts attack” surrounding the capitol.nUnder Blanchard and liberal RepublicannWilliam Milliken, the arts council wasnsubsidizing rich areas at the expense of thenpoor and middle class. Public recordsnshow the MCA distributed more thannone-third of its grants between 1981 andn1986 to artists in Oakland and Washtenawncounties, Michigan’s wealthiest twoncounties on a per capita basis and homento less than one in seven state residents.nArtists in 24 of Michigan’s 25 counties didnnot receive any grants from the MCAnduring the same five-year period. MCAnfunding for the Cranbrook Academynof Arts and related facilities increasedn742 percent from $45,900 in 1975 ton$340,582 in 1990, while inOation rosenonly 239 percent. Famous as liberal commentatornMichael Kinsley’s alma mater,nCranbrook also has the distinction of beingnin Bloomfield Hills, which has thenhighest per capita income in the state.nEngler responded to these powerfulnclass arguments as any neoconservativenRepublican might. He caved in to Republicannplutocrats who support state fundingnfor the arts and reinstated “temporary” taxndollars for three years to fund a newnMichigan arts council. “The governorndoesn’t mind seeing money for capitalnimprovements or structural improvementsnand maintenance,” spokesmannJohn Truscott said after Engler met privatelynon August 7 with subsidy-seekers,nincluding Republican billionaire A. AlfrednTaubman, who controls Sotheby’s, anninternational auction house. The DetoitnNews said Engler emerged from the meetingn”looking like a man who had beenntaken to the woodshed.” Or a bank.nEngler threw a bone to critics andnnamed Olson to the new MCA board, actionnthat Cohan compared to “putting anfox in the chicken coop.” He need notnworry. Engler’s tax-cut plan provides onlynpalpable property tax relief for MacombnCounty and Downriver Detroit, and henhas begun to bitterly attack the press fornhis own handler’s incompetence. Thensmart money in Lansing is that Engler willnbecome a one-term governor in 1994, justnin time to make his “temporary ” rein-n