Middle ground on abortion

Newsday reports that after a year of planning, the administration of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi developed a $1 million initiative to provide adoption services, housing for teens with crisis pregnancies and prevention programs that include abstinence education. The county carefully chose eight agencies from both sides of the abortion divide - from Catholic Charities to Planned Parenthood - as well as some in between to deliver the services. The paper notes that "Even Bishop William Murphy, head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre and an ardent opponent of abortion, applauded this effort as a pragmatic approach."

Now, however, legislators who don't support Suozzi's gubernatorial run are balking at approving the contracts. Some criticize Suozzi for making abortion a local issue, but the county already spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on pregnancy and sexual-disease prevention programs, some of its own design and others required by the state. Other opponents say they want the money to be used, instead, to fund youth-group programs. But couldn't stopping kids from having babies be considered the ultimate youth program?

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