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

DATE: MONDAY, April 26, 1993                   TAG: 9304260378
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WOMEN'S CONCERNS OVERSHADOWED

I CANNOT believe the lightness with which the issue of abortion is treated by the Clinton administration and many pro-choice spokespeople. It is not just some health-care procedure like any other, but involves moral questions that cannot be denied, even by those who support legal abortion. More importantly, it cannot be denied that abortion creates a void where a new life would have been.

Thus, it should not be free, quick and simple. The attempt to make it so, and to use tax dollars to do so, is not an increase in the care given to women's issues but a failure to take them seriously. This includes the fact that more crucial issues, such as provisions for pregnancy, day care and education - and against the poverty and abuse of women - continue to be overshadowed or, worse, ignored. Moreover, people with a moral or spiritual repugnance for abortion should not have to pay for them. ERIN BARATTA ROANOKE

by CNB