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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995                   TAG: 9502160026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROSEMONT, ILL.                                LENGTH: Medium

INSTRUCTION ON ABORTIONS REQUIRED

The 23-member Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education said unless residents have a moral or religious objection, ``experience with induced abortion must be part of residency training.''

Residency programs with moral or religious objections to providing the training can opt out, but must contract with another institution to do the teaching.

The current requirement says only that residents are ``required to learn clinical skills in family planning,'' said Dr. John Gienapp, executive director of the council. That has implied abortion but never spelled it out, he said.

Without referring to specific figures, Gienapp said, ``There've been surveys and press reports that residents have not been getting as much training as were mandated in our standards.''

The exact number of doctors performing abortions is not available.

In 1976, 7.5 percent of the nation's 270 residency programs did not offer abortion training. By 1991, that figure rose to 31 percent, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that favors abortion rights.

During the same period, the percentage of residency programs that required abortion training fell from 26 percent to 12 percent, according to the institute.

The council is an independent body of representatives from medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association. It can withhold accreditation from hospitals that don't meet its standards. Hospitals must be accredited to receive federal reimbursement for patients that residents treat.

Dr. Norman Gant, executive director of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said his group supported the change.

``It's not a perfect answer. I don't think there's a perfect answer to this,'' he said. ``Our board was divided on this. We have some people who are strongly anti-abortion. I'm strongly anti-abortion personally, but pro-choice. How schizophrenic is that?''

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized the change. ``Coercing people and institutions to participate in the destruction of innocent life is a great evil,'' Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles said on behalf of the conference.