Students’ Health First--Politics Second : Anti-abortion ideology gets in the way of education for all

A controversy in an Orange County school district demonstrates how abortion counseling can be over-politicized at the grass-roots level, even to the point of jeopardizing the education and health of students.

The long, nationwide battle to restore abortion counseling at federally funded clinics ended when President Clinton nullified orders of the Reagan and Bush administrations. But by then, local anti-abortion forces had taken the fight to the school board in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. They have won, at least for now. But it’s a hollow victory, one that is diverting funds from worthy programs and depriving youngsters of counseling they may desperately need.

To be fair, the anti-abortion forces regard their stand as a matter of holding to deep principle as they sought to retain the parts of state-financed counseling programs--funded at about $50,000--that they were comfortable with. They took aim at a Medi-Cal-funded program that provided students with not only drug education counseling but family planning advice. They liked the first part but not the second.

Eager to rid the district of any hint of the latter, anonymous callers pressured the district by charging that eligibility cards for state-funded abortions were being handed out to students--as if teen-agers were lining up to have them. It didn’t matter that the district had no record of any student ever receiving an abortion under the program. What the program actually did was provide what a confused youngster might need in a crisis: confidential counseling that did not absolutely require notification of parents. The state funds a range of counseling services under the Medi-Cal Minor Consent Program, to provide youngsters, starting at age 12, with confidential help.

The district, under fierce parental pressure, decided it wanted only the politically acceptable drug counseling component, not the family planning services. But in picking and choosing, it foolishly lost everything when even the drug counseling money was withdrawn. The school district since has been trying to get the state to give in and provide only what it wants, but Medi-Cal officials correctly have resisted pressure to tailor its vital counseling services.

So, in the end, what did the district accomplish? Having punted away valuable money, it had to scratch around for $15,300 in its coffers to revive only the drug program for the remainder of the year. Here’s a district that unwisely allowed ideology to get in the way of education.