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Web posted January 23, 1997

Editor, The Chronicle

The recent finding that the U.S. abortion rate has fallen to its lowest point since 1976 has left many scrambling for an explanation.

We at Planned Parenthood hope that increased access to sex education and family planning services have helped to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, perhaps moving the nation toward President Clinton's goal of making abortion ``safe, legal, and rare.'' As educators and providers of family planning, we know these services work.

What we fear, however, is that we may be seeing the cumulative effect of decades of violence (like the recent bombing in Atlanta), daily harassment of clinics, and onerous legislative maneuvers on the part of religious political extremists.

This is an important issue to discuss on the 24th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, and acknowledged the right of all American women to control their own reproductive destinies.

But the power of Roe has been diluted in 1997. While American women still have the right to choose safe, legal abortion, many of them have no way to exercise that right. In fact, 84 percent of the counties in America don't even have a doctor available and willing to perform the procedure; 85 percent of medical schools do not teach abortion procedures. ...

As Mr. Clinton begins his second term and Congress begins a new session, we propose that they adopt the following positive, common-sense agenda to truly make abortion ``safe, legal and rare'':

- At least double funding for preventive family planning services. ...

- Encourage policies that would require private insurance coverage of birth control methods.

- Eliminate the absurd welfare reform requirement to teach abstinence-only sex education as part of state maternal and child health programs. ...

- Reassert the U.S. leadership role in international family planning. ...

Mary Beth Pierucci, Augusta

(Editor's note: The writer is external affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of East Central Georgia.)