Abortion Funds

Your report (April 14) that the Clinton Administration may include abortion in its basic medical health care reform package is sobering.

Our nation’s health care system needs desperately to be overhauled so that the millions who cannot afford even the barest of medical assistance will be provided with health care. But to force the majority of Americans who believe that abortion is morally wrong to endorse and perhaps even pay for elective abortions as part of “full reproductive rights” to ensure necessary health coverage for all is unconscionable. All polls show that the vast majority of Americans continue to oppose the vast majority of abortions performed in this country.

If the Administration sees inclusion of abortion in its health care package as a way to placate some who voted for President Clinton, perhaps it should bear in mind that 57% of the voters did not vote for Clinton, and many who did, did so for economic reasons and in the belief that he intended to make abortion “rare,” not solidify it further in our law and culture.

GAIL QUINN, Executive Director

Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities

Washington