Abortion Controversy

WASHINGTON -- The abortion issue, promoted as never before as a crucial question for America's mainstream voters, turned into a political puzzle of deep complexity as the ballots were counted yesterday.Two public officeholders who were special favorites of one side or the other in the abortion controversy were thrown out of office or seemed close to defeat, and their stands on the subject seemed to be a contributing if not the decisive factor.One who clearly did not survive after being targeted for defeat by the other side was Florida's Republican Gov. Bob Martinez, TC fervent abortion foe who could not get the legislature to pass restrictive bills he wanted.

With a day remaining in the 1990 primary election season, abortion remained a paramount issue for many candidates and voters in Maryland -- but it lost some of the spotlight to the role of special-interest money in elections, to Gov. William Donald Schaefer and even to Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.The threat of war and the massive mobilization of soldiers and equipment in the Middle East may well have pushed state-level political races -- often obscure for many voters -- even further from the public consciousness.