Behind the Court’s Back

The Reagan Administration has decided to move ahead with controversial rules prohibiting family-planning programs that receive federal funds from even talking with women about abortions. The rules, soon to be published in final form, are probably illegal and certainly ill-intended.

The new rules, which would have the force of law, would prohibit family-planning counselors from telling women their range of options and from referring them to physicians should they decide to terminate a pregnancy. That especially affects poor women who cannot afford the counsel that a private physician could offer. Fifteen years ago this week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal--a decision that the Reagan Administration seeks to limit administratively because it has failed to get its way in pursuing other avenues.

Many thoughtful, religious people feel that abortion is wrong, and they are entitled to conduct their own lives in accordance with their moral views. Few on the other side of the issue would make abortion their first choice among birth-control methods; indeed, many people who regard abortion as a decision that women have a right to take are uneasy about the number of women who elect to have abortions. But that is the point: Women must have that choice despite the noisy, occasionally violent, forms of protest by a few who would inflict their views on all women.

And they are a minority. The latest poll released by the National Abortion Rights Action League shows that only 10% of the registered voters who were questioned opposed abortion in all circumstances; 58% of Republicans questioned said specifically that they opposed a constitutional amendment overturning the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade, as did 64% of Democrats and 67% of independents.

In discussions connected with the polling, the abortion-rights group found that while many people support the court decision, they do not feel comfortable with abortion as the choice that many women are making. Responsible family-planning counseling, adequately supported by federal resources, offers the best way to avoid having to make that choice in the first place. But these programs will not be able to function if the government cuts off their money. The Reagan Administration’s decision is shortsighted and punitive. It should be challenged and promptly thrown out by the courts.