New federal regulations that do not allow doctors to mention abortion as an option for women have no regard for poor women, who will be hurt the most, said Charlotte Best, a member of Centre Countians for Choice.
However, the government is not mandating that doctors counsel to encourage adoption, said Denise Neary, of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.
Best said the new regulations cut heavily into the doctor-patient relationship.
"Clearly, they cannot intrude upon the privacy of a doctor-patient relationship," said Alice Kirkman, public affairs director for the National Abortion Federation.
She added "that no physician can withhold information from a patient on available medical procedures, because that would be malpractice."
But Neary said that both of the human lives involved have to be taken into account.
"A true physician, when treating a pregnant woman, cares for two patients," Neary said. "If a physician believes that abortion is the killing of a life, then he is killing one of his two patients."
Kirkman expressed concern that women will not be able to get necessary medical attention if they are forced to go searching for information and advice that their doctor will not be able to provide for them under the new regulations.
"It is safer and less expensive to go through with the procedure early in the pregnancy," she said. "A women doesn't need to delay. It is harmful to her and takes extra time and money that many poorer women do not have."
Best agreed the regulations will hurt poor women the most because if they cannot afford to support a child, all legal options should be offered to them by their doctor.
"They are just a bone Reagan is throwing to the right with no regard to those it will hurt," Best said.
Although in Centre County only hospitals perform abortions, she said, the family planning centers will be affected greatly by not being able to provide complete option counseling.
The new regulations affect family planning agencies that are funded with Title X this is a 10 -- Roman numeralsmonies through the Public Health Services Act. The original regulations stated that no federal funds would be used for cases where abortion is used as a method of family planning, the Department of Health and Human Services said.
In a statement last week, the Department of Health and Human Services said the new regulations limit Title X funding to those programs that do not perform abortions or provide counseling with abortion as an option. The department prohibits funding agencies that promote, encourage or advocate abortion as a method of family planning.
Neary said the previous regulations stated that "none of these funds can be used" for abortion as a form of family planning. She said organizations like Planned Parenthood, through some "creative bookkeeping," use federal funds for counseling and family planning and use private donations for abortions.
"Planned Parenthood is public enemy No. 1 of unborn children," Neary said. "These regulations will get family planning groups out of the business of abortion and will get abortion out of the category of family planning."
Kirkman said the previous Title X regulations funded programs are consistent with the ethical guidelines of the medical profession. Upon diagnosis of the pregnancy those regulations provided for complete option counseling, including abortion, in a non-judgmental manner.
The U.S.Department of Health and Human Services received over 75,000 comments during the 60-day period for public comment. The final regulations were published Feb. 2 and should go into effect March 3 after a 30-day grace period.
Title X funds support about 4,000 family planning clinics nationwide through 89 grants. The program, budgeted in 1988 for $140 million, serves about 4.3 million women, more than 85 percent of them low-income women and about a third are adolescents.
"These regulations will ensure that Title X funds are spent for services that Congress always intended they support," Otis R. Bowen, M.D., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said last week.
"The Title X programs are intended to reduce the incidence of abortion, not to help women get them," he said.
Kirkman said "I strongly believe the regulations will be struck down in the courts."
She said the deans of every major medical university including the American College of Obstetricians oppose the regulations as unconstitutional.
Lawsuits seeking immediate injunctions against the regulations have been filed in Colorado, New York and Massachusetts. Planned Parenthood, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the state and city of New York are among the plaintiffs.
Neary said if the regulations are appealed to the Supreme Court "in all likelihood they will be upheld. The courts will have to make the distinction between family planning and contraception."
Best said the Centre County group will not file suit but will support any efforts by Planned Parenthood to oppose the regulations.
Kirkman said, "It is state-mandated harm to these women. The government is trying to play politics with people's lives."
The National Abortion Federation is a professional non-profit association of 300 institutional and 100 reproductive health groups and is not directly affected by the new regulations.
"These are the people who see the women who are adversely affected by these regulations," Kirkman said.
