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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994                   TAG: 9406030066
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By KATHRYN B. HAYNIE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HEALTH CARE

A POLL released last month shows that support for President Clinton's health-care reform plan is eroding. The reason: mass confusion. It's not that most Americans are happy with health care today. They just don't know what effect change will have on their lives.

Yet the need for health-care reform is more urgent than ever. We have one of the highest infant-mortality rates in the developed world. We still have unacceptably high rates of unintended pregnancy, unwanted childbearing and sexually transmitted infections. We still have a raging AIDS epidemic. And we still have 37 million Americans who lack access to health services.

In fact, in our own community, the rates of unintended pregnancy, especially among teens, are among the highest in the state.

In light of these alarming facts, we must not allow the process of reform to be halted by those who sow the seeds of confusion. There is a problem, and the time has come to find a solution.

I believe the solution begins with prevention and must include access to comprehensive reproductive health care. The inability of women to exercise reproductive choice makes prevention impossible and creates serious public-health problems. As access to safer, earlier legal abortion becomes increasingly restricted, we can be sure that mortality and morbidity will increase among American women and children. In cities where Medicaid funds for abortion have been cut off, we see higher rates of low-birth-weight babies, serious medical problems and increased public costs.

It is equally predictable that omitting comprehensive reproductive health care from basic coverage will only result in more teen pregnancies, more unwanted births, more poverty and more sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Unless Americans address these crises, the costs to society - in human lives, tax dollars and social stability - will be catastrophic. In 1993 alone, we spent $34 billion on families started by teen mothers.

The solution? We must begin by preventing unintended pregnancy and reproductive-related illness by offering universal access to prenatal care, pap tests, mammograms for women after age 40, and screenings for sexually transmitted infections. We must preserve health instead of merely treating disease.

There are those who have promised to hold health-care reform hostage if abortion is included. Such tactics should be strongly condemned. Comprehensive reproductive health care, including medically necessary and appropriate abortion, is key to women's health. Has anyone threatened to hold up health-care reform in opposition to reproductive care for men? It's time to depoliticize abortion and return it to the realm of medical care.

If Congress passes a comprehensive health-care reform bill by the fall, the lives of all Americans will be improved, now and in the future. If it passes a bill that addresses reproductive health care sensibly, fairly and compassionately, we can look forward to a time in the not-so-distant future when the health and well-being of women and their families are no longer the luck of the draw.

Kathryn B. Haynie is president of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge.

by CNB