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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994                   TAG: 9402050146
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PA. CAN ENFORCE ABORTION LAWS

Pennsylvania got permission from a federal appeals court Friday to enforce its laws against abortion, apparently putting more pregnant women under legal restrictions than at any time since the Supreme Court established abortion rights 21 years ago.

Some 90 clinics and other medical facilities in Pennsylvania, serving thousands of women, must begin obeying laws enacted in 1988 and 1989 as soon as a federal judge and state health officials issue paperwork. Nine of those clinics have provided about 91 percent of the abortions in the state.

Only three other states - Kansas, Mississippi and Nebraska - are now enforcing abortion-limiting laws like Pennsylvania's. None of those states has as many women or facilities affected as Pennsylvania will. Some 50,000 women in Pennsylvania had abortions last year; about the same number will be affected annually by the laws, said Kathryn Kolbert, vice president of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.

Key requirements of the Pennsylvania laws: Women must wait 24 hours before getting an abortion and must listen to a lecture about the nature of the fetus and the risks of abortion; teen-agers living with their parents must get the consent of a parent or a state judge for an abortion; and clinics must file reports that will make their locations public if they receive state funds.

by CNB