Check Those Facts On Need for Abortion

To the Editor:

President Clinton characterized Senator Bob Dole's position on the partial-birth abortion ban as "I did not want to be bothered by the facts," and asked what Mr. Dole would say to the five women who watched the President veto the bill and were said to have had the procedure to preserve their health (front page, May 24).

It is the President who ignores the facts. Dr. Pamela E. Smith of Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago wrote to Congress that "absolutely no obstetrical situations" in this country require the procedure "to preserve the life or health of the mother." Dr. James R. Jones, the chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., reviewed the transcripts of the five women's statements and said that in the cases that were described specifically, other options were available. It is time to end the myth that this procedure is necessary.

(Rev.) FRANK PAVONE

National Director, Priests for Life Staten Island, May 24, 1996