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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994                   TAG: 9401060117
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ABORTION-FUNDING RULE MAY BE MOOT IN VIRGINIA

It appears that the implementation of new federal rules requiring states to provide abortions for poor women who become pregnant because of rape or incest would have little effect on Virginia.

The requirement - announced by the Clinton administration last week - has caused an uproar in some states that have specific prohibitions on public funding of abortions. It also has stirred a debate over whether Congress last year intended to force or merely allow states to use federal Medicaid funds for abortions in cases of rape and incest.

A spokeswoman said this week that Clinton is considering extending the March 31 deadline for implementing the new rules.

In Virginia, Medicaid funds - administered by the Department of Medical Assistance Services - are not used for abortions in cases of rape or incest. The Department of Health, however, may use state tax dollars to pay for such abortions.

To be eligible for the funding, the law requires that the woman reported the rape or incest to law-enforcement or health officials and satisfies the same eligibility requirements used by the Medicaid program.

Virginia law also allows state-funded abortions for poor women in cases where the fetus is believed to have a "gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity . . . [or] mental deficiency."

No Health Department officials were available Wednesday to verify the number of such publicly funded abortions performed in the state each year.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue, however, agreed that the number is very small - probably averaging fewer than a half-dozen annually.

The state Medicaid program is allowed to use federal matching Medicaid funds to pay for abortions in cases where the woman's life is endangered.

The Medicaid program also uses state funds only to pay for abortions in cases where a doctor certifies that the health of the woman is "substantially endangered."

by CNB