Family Planning: Rust v. Sullivan

Burke Balch of the National Right to Life Committee and Wendy Stone of Americans United for Life discussed the May 23 Supreme Court decision of Rust v. Sullivan, in which laws prohibiting federally funded family planning clinics from disseminating information on abortion as an alternative for pregnant women was found constitutional. While opponents of abortion spoke favorably of the ruling, supporters of choice for women denounced the decision as violating clinic employees' freedom of speech, and said that low income women will be especially affected, as they will no longer have access to information about the range of family planning alternatives. Mr. Balch claimed that the decision represented the mainstream views of Americans who want to control how their tax money will allocated for use in abortions. He also said that the freedom of speech to discuss abortions could be curtailed, since the individuals concerned are government employees working on government time. close