012474 Cardinal, Foundling Hospital Counter Abortion With Positive Programs

By NORA CLARE SHARKEY
Staff Writer

The first anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Abortion Decision was marked on Tuesday by Cardinal Cooke who announced the joint development of a Parent-Child Development Center at the New York Foundling Hospital as a positive step toward a better quality of life for all.

Speaking at a news conference at which plans for the new project were announced by the Archdiocese and the staff of the New York Foundling Hospital, Cardinal Cooke pointed out that while he was "happy to be here today to join in the announcement of the program" his happiness was "tinged with sorrow because today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court's tragic decision allowing abortion on demand."

Noting that the passage of an amendment to the United States Constitution providing protection to all life including the unborn was the necessary action to overrule the 1973 Court decision, Cardinal Cooke stressed that his role was one of "education so that everyone can be made aware of the need for extending the protection of the constitution to everyone."

Cardinal Cooke said that the Center which will bring together seven separate Foundling programs dealing with children and parents under one umbrella like structure, will both improve the quality of life for the children involved and offer witness to the efforts to assure that all people will come to respect life.

In explaining the need for such programs, the Cardinal said that the Court decision had "cheapened life" by denying its value "on one end of the continuum" an action that inevitably leads to the "cheapening of life at all stages." Viewing it from a perspective of medicine and sociology, Cardinal Cooke said that unless steps were taken to reinforce the value of all life society would be seriously damaged and all humanity would suffer the consequences. This correction, he said, would come with passage of the constitutional amendment and he called for a rapid beginning of congressional hearings on proposed amendments.

According to the Foundling's Executive Director, Sister Marian Cecilia, S.C., "it is not enough to take a philosophic view on abortion. We have to offer alternatives which provide viable choices when the women involved are making their decisions."

Pointing to the 16-month-old Mother Child program which houses young, unmarried mothers and their infants in the Foundling complex while they complete education and learn basic home skills as one example of an alternative means, Sr. Marian Cecilia said that the Center for Parent-Child Development would increase the availability of programs such as this and offer a way to evolve new programs.

Dr. Vincent J. Fontana, the Foundling's medical director and assistant to the administrator, also stressed the need for programs that offered "corrective education" for parents and provided models of mothering for parents who "know nothing of being mothers from their own experience.- In stressing the need for further development of programs, Dr. Fontana. who is an expert in the area of child abuse, noted that child abuse accounts for a high percentage of death and that the Foundling's year-old Temporary Center for Abusive Parents has offered the opportunity to "go back a generation" and change attitudes and offer "new avenues" of behavior to those who have never witnessed a normal home environment and perpetuate their own abusive past.

Dr. Fontana countered that proabortionist stand that "abused children are unwanted children" saying that in his study and the experience of other experts in the field, the abused child is a victim of circumstances that programs such as the one at the Foundling can correct. "Abortion," he stressed, "is a symptom not a cause and we here are working to correct the causes."

In addition to the Mother Child Program and the Temporary Center for Abusive Parents, the Foundling has also initiated programs of Family Day Care and Group Day Care to assist working mothers. Family Day Care provides a home environment near their own homes during the day while the mothers work. The Group Day Care program is housed at the Foundling and cares for some 40 children of working mothers from age 3 months to age 3 years. All four programs are geared to keeping mothers and children together and when problems are severe correcting them so that the family unit can remain intact. Three child-centered programs offer the opportunity for the improvement of the quality of life both of children and adults with whom the Foundling deals. A Special Services Department, begun in mid1973, treats physically and emotionally handicapped children with an eye toward their eventual return to their families or placement in a foster home situation. Special Foster Homes are being developed for children who leave the in-Foundling facility and will incorporate continuation of special services for the children and special education for foster parents. Also part of the child-parent care is the running of a foster home for a group of emotionally disturbed children.

Many of the programs have evolved in the last three years in answer to what the Foundling has recognized as newly defined societal needs. When the Center for Parent-Child Development is complete it is hoped that additional programs geared to the needs of all parents and society will be created.

At present the programs already in existence will be carried on and funds are being sought for the creation of a nationwide Parent-Child Care ,center based on the Foundling.