
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1992                   TAG: 9203040289
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

KEEP ABORTION DECISION PRIVATE ONE

LET'S KEEP the abortion decision a private one. The right-to-life advocates and policy makers are misguided in their belief that this is a matter to be decided by the courts.

The Supreme Court has been packed with conservatives during the past 12 years of Republican leadership. One of the most visible outcomes is the imminent reversal of Roe vs. Wade, which gives a woman the constitutional right to an abortion.

In anticipation, anti-abortion bills are being offered in several state legislatures. These vary from outright prohibition of legal abortion, to the "gag rule" that prohibits federally funded institutions from offering abortion information, to laws making it unnecessarily difficult to obtain an abortion. How can a body of politicians responsibly regulate an issue as personal as medical care of any kind?

Several bills are pending before the Virginia General Assembly designed to limit a woman's right to an abortion. Let's make it known that we don't want our medical care regulated by the government. SUSAN PEIRICK SALEM

by CNB