Wrong on Abortion Counseling

Last July, President Reagan announced his intention to withhold abortion information from 1.5 million women, even though life-threatening circumstances may exist. The women whom he has targeted are those who, not able to afford private medical care, must rely on 4,500 publicly funded family-planning centers. Now Secretary of Health and Human Services Otis R. Bowen has released the new regulation implying that women are mindless and conscienceless and must be denied this information because they are incapable of making ethical decisions.

Since the Public Health Service Act, which supports these family-planning centers, was passed in 1970, the centers have been allowed to discuss abortion and make referrals when necessary. Abortion procedures, however, have never been publicly funded under the act.

In support of Reagan’s position, the Justice Department, according to the New York Times, has issued an opinion concluding that abortion counseling or referrals “inevitably promote abortion,” and adding that “it is clearly to be expected that some women receiving such counseling will select the option of abortion.”

The drafters of the language, men in lofty places, obviously believe that women blithely and unthinkingly prefer abortion surgery to the joy of nurturing and giving life to an unborn child. They cannot know the wrenching pain of giving up a child. For most women abortion is an agonizing, tormenting decision--one that most must make alone. Far from a first choice, abortion is for most women a last resort.

Statistics appear to substantiate this. Although family-planning centers have provided abortion information for more than a decade, the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reports that between 1981 and 1983, the most recent study available, there has been a steady decline in elective abortions. The decline is in actual numbers as well as the number of abortions per live births. Fewer women are choosing abortion.

Now the President, who is strongly opposed to abortion regardless of the law, is attempting to inflict his wishes on the public, and only court action or public outcry can stop him. The proposed regulation is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register sometime next week. The public then will have 60 days to file comments that legally must be considered before the government may issue a final ruling that would have the effect of law. Any comments should be directed to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, P.O. Box 2399, L’Enfant Plaza, Washington, D.C. 20026-3993.

Regardless of one’s position on abortion, denying this medical information to women because they are dependent on public programs--information that is readily available to women who can afford private medical care--is wrong.