Is it true as Eleanor Wehle Miller states in her letter on April 7, that denying Medicaid funds will drive poor women to back alleys for "kitchen table" abortions? Denying Medicaid funds prevents the use of public monies for elective abortions.

To measure the impact of the restriction of federal funds for abortions for Medicaid-eligible women, the Center for Disease Control conducted a hospital surveillance project in 13 states and the District of Columbia from October-10, 1977 to June 10, 1978. No increase in abortion-related complications was observed. It seems that the dire predictions envisioned by Ms. Miller do not materialize.

Ms. Miller ends her letter with a frequently used pro-abortion phrase "'for the bleeding victims of coat-hanger abortions." Can she list the date,  place, and number of coat-hanger cases for each of the past 20 years? If not, should not the reference to coat hangers be eliminated from abortion discussion?

"So how can those who oppose Medicaid funding sleep with clear consciences? Ms. Miller asks. Pro-lifers wonder how cultured persons can sleep knowing that they have exploited thousands of poor women and have participated in the killing of 30 million children world-wide, 1.2 million in the United States, and 50,000 in New York' State during the past year.

The Chicago Sun-Times expose and' the report prepared by the New York Daily News show that clinics are far ifrom safe. The old back alley operators in their desire to keep out of the clutches of the law did no more damage to the women than do many of the present-day legal ones.

Pro-abortionists focus their attention solely on the women. The pro-lifers are concerned with the welfare of both the women and their innocent, helpless, weak, and inarticulate children. In contemporary society, no one is weaker or more defenseless, more vulnerable than a preborn child.