Abortion Issue

In a move praised by both sides of the abortion issue, the Naval Academy has decided to grant a one-year leave of absence to midshipmen who become pregnant or are responsible for a pregnancy.The policy replaces one that made pregnancy grounds for expulsion and is in sharp contrast to a proposal last spring that would have allowed a pregnant midshipman to remain at the academy only if she terminated the pregnancy within 30 days."We want to make sure [midshipmen] have the ability and time to make a thoughtful and well-informed decision," said Capt.

WASHINGTON -- It should come as no surprise to anyone that Republican conservatives in Congress are mounting another full-bore attack on abortion rights.You might have imagined the abortion issue was settled for the foreseeable future by the Supreme Court decision in a Pennsylvania case. The court essentially upheld Roe vs. Wade, but ruled that states could impose restrictions on abortion so long as they did not impose an "undue burden" on women.The beauty of that decision was that it seemed to reflect with remarkable accuracy the opinion of the nation.

WASHINGTON -- If hypocrisy were a commodity that could be packaged, you could argue that the Senate cornered the market in the debate over the nomination of Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. to be surgeon general.The Republican insistence that the procedural roadblock they built against his confirmation was based on his qualifications rather than the abortion issue and politics was a joke. As Sen. Jim Exon, a Nebraska Democrat, put it in the extravagant language used so often in the Senate, Foster was being "crucified on the altar of presidential politics, pure and simple."

WASHINGTON -- After months of partisan wrangling, Tennessee obstetrician Henry W. Foster Jr., President Clinton's embattled nominee for surgeon general, takes his case to a Senate committee today facing a tough -- perhaps even unwinnable -- battle for confirmation.Republicans have vowed to prevent Dr. Foster from being confirmed even if he clears the first major hurdle: winning support from the Labor and Human Resources Committee, which begins hearings today.As the White House staged an 11th-hour public relations blitz for its nominee yesterday, busing in teen-agers from Nashville who said Dr. Foster had been a positive force in their lives, Mr. Clinton railed against those he said were trying to use his nominee as a "political football."

The Maryland Senate approved its version of the state budget yesterday without any attempt to lift current restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions for poor women.The 42-to-5 vote sends the $14.4 billion spending plan to a conference committee to work out relatively minor differences with the House of Delegates.Both House and Senate versions of the budget contain large increases in state spending for construction and renovation of public schools. They also contain a 2 percent pay raise for state employees and surpluses set aside, in part, to offset expected cuts in federal aid.The Senate's version also includes about $15.5 million that Gov. Parris N. Glendening specifically earmarked for crime prevention and other programs in the three jurisdictions he carried in November's election, Prince George's and Montgomery counties and the city of Baltimore.

In what may be one of the closest and most controversial votes of this year's legislative session, the House of Delegates is expected to decide today whether to lift 15-year-old restrictions on when tax dollars may finance abortions for poor women on Medicaid.Gov. Parris N. Glendening, fulfilling a campaign promise, removed the restrictions from the budget he submitted to the legislature in January, and the governor is lobbying hard to keep them off the books.But anti-abortion lawmakers say they hope to get the 71-vote majority needed in the House to put the restrictions back.

Abortion opponents appealed to Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening yesterday to abandon his campaign promise to lift current restrictions on state-funded abortions for poor women.A coalition of anti-abortion groups released the results of a new public opinion poll showing that most Marylanders want the restrictions on abortions financed under the Medicaid program left in place or even tightened.The abortion opponents claimed that the November election produced anti-abortion majorities in both houses of the General Assembly, and they predicted that Mr. Glendening is setting himself up for a political embarrassment if he tries to implement his promise.

Voters should not trust Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey to leave the abortion issue alone if she is elected governor, a group of women representing abortion rights organizations warned yesterday."

CAIRO, Egypt -- Delegates of most of the world's countries approved yesterday a liberal plan to try to rein in population growth by urging that women have more control over their pregnancies.The plan of the international population conference describes abortion -- for the first time -- as a matter of women's health care and not as a moral issue, a matter that stirred great controversy between states represented here and the Roman Catholic Church and Islamic leaders.The nine-day conference, which ended yesterday, urged that women be given authority and the contraceptive methods to decide whether and when to have children.

CAIRO, Egypt -- The United States is trying to downplay the dispute over abortion at the international conference on population, but opponents say they do not trust the Clinton administration.The conference of 170 nations formally opened yesterday, and Vice President Al Gore sought to portray the criticism of his country's stand on abortion as a "lingering misunderstanding."But the Vatican, Islamic critics and abortion opponents remained wary. They believe that the Clinton administration is plotting to upend policies remaining from the Reagan administration prohibiting U.S. aid for abortions.