For UHS Abortion Coverage

THE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SERVICE has finally recognized that abortion coverage--as well as maternity benefits--should be part of any health care plan, and its decision to pay for first trimester abortions is commendable, if long overdue. Voluntary abortion is a controversial and politicized issue, but it is also an alternative that should be available to any woman who finds herself pregnant regardless of financial considerations. It is up to the woman involved to decide whether she wants a baby. Leaving abortion out of health care plans implies that only the rich are entitled to decide whether they want to have a child, when contraceptive measures have failed, and that only the poor need carry unwanted children, go into debt, or seek cheapter--and usually less safe--means of aborting fetuses.

This is not to suggest that Harvard students have foregone abortions in the past because they could not find the $150 the UHS will now supply. Women at Harvard have generally managed to find funds for abortions if they did not want a child. But financial questions have often assumed far greater importance than they should. Voluntary abortions tend to carry with them emotional and moral dilemmas, and by refusing to pay for abortions the University has until now required less-wealthy students and students who could not seek aid from their families to shunt these problems to a later date, until they have taken care of the more immediate question of financing.

The UHS has wisely decided to allow students who oppose abortion on moral grounds to withdraw the small portion of their health services fee--less than $1.00--that will go toward UHS abortion coverage. Such a provision is only fair, given the opposition, due to religious or ethical conviction, of some members of the Harvard community to abortion. But students who plan to ask the UHS to refund their part of the abortion fund should realize that by thus stating their opposition to the abortion coverage plan they express by implication a desire to return to a situation where less wealthy students face problems wealthier ones need not consider. Such a stand is hard to support, whether or not you oppose abortion itself.

Abortions is a right, not a privilege, and Harvard has finally recognized its relevance to students' lives. The Radcliffe Union of Students should be commended for taking the first step toward full abortion coverage in creating an emergency fund, but insurance that students considering abortion can focus on emotional, rather than financial need should lie, as it now does, with the UHS.