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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995                   TAG: 9509250050
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LEAVE UNITED WAY OUT OF IT

So what is their gripe with United Way? And why stage their protest during United Way's fall fund-raising campaign?

They claim the human-services organization has been stained by the recent decision of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, a United Way partner agency for 25 years, to begin offering first-trimester abortions.

Because this claim is wrong, and its promulgators should know it, their protest deserves to be ignored - by opponents as well as supporters of abortion rights.

In fact, not a penny of United Way funding goes to abortion services. Not now or next year, not here or anywhere in the country.

In the Roanoke Valley, an annual allocation of some $43,000, less than 1 percent of the United Way campaign, goes to Planned Parenthood. All of that goes to an education program aimed at reducing teen pregnancy.

But wait, say the protesters, can't one operation subsidize another? Sure, sometimes. But not in this case.

Planned Parenthood's clinical services, now to include abortion, operate on a sliding-fee scale and a break-even basis. They do not require subsidies from any other Planned Parenthood program in order to function, nor do they produce revenues used to cover other operations.

Similarly with Planned Parenthood's educational efforts. They produce no surplus revenue that could be used for abortions or other programs, nor are they subsidized by other operations.

Community volunteers at United Way rigorously scrutinize their allocations and the finances and operations of partner agencies. Anyone who cares should rest assured that United Way's contributions to Planned Parenthood are aimed only at fighting teen pregnancy, much like support given to counseling and education initiatives at the Council of Community Services, the Girl Scouts, the Mental Health Association and the YWCA.

Indeed, a recent city of Roanoke assessment found Planned Parenthood's program the most effective at reducing adolescent pregnancy.

Roanoke's teen-pregnancy rate has come down since 1991, when it was highest in the state. But it remains well above the state average. If anything, United Way and local agencies aren't mounting enough of a concerted campaign against adolescent pregnancy.

For opponents of abortion rights, pregnancy prevention would hardly seem an appropriate picketing offense.

Another fact the protesters overlook: United Way offers a donor's choice option. This allows contributors to direct their money specifically to any agency, or to exclude an agency from receiving any of it.

One of United Way's strengths is the common ground it offers. People of varying backgrounds, opinions and religious beliefs come together to help needy neighbors and to support services that help keep the community together. Opponents of abortion rights not only do their own cause a disservice by fighting pregnancy-prevention efforts. They do their community a disservice as well, by trying to pull United Way into their battle.