U.S. Doctors Favor Freer Abortion Laws
NEW YORK (A-A majority of American doctors questioned in a poll say that a pregnant woman should be able to have an abortion if she asks for one.
Most also said that discreet homosexual acts between consenting adults should be permitted without ·legal restrictions.
But the doctors over-
whelmingly rejected the idea of legalizing the sale of marijuana.
The poll was conducted by the publication, Modern Medicine.
Dr. Donald W. Hastings, professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, analyzed the findings and said it appears that physicians are leading the nation in taking a critical look at the issues.
OF THE DOCTORS' views on marijuana, however, Dr. Hastings said:
"In view of the scientific ignorance about marijuana, one concludes that the strong physician dislike of it, which cannot rest on logical grounds, must be emotional in kind.
"One guesses that the rejection of 'pot' represents physical backlash toward all that it stands for: long hair, uncleanliness, nonconformity to accepted standards of conduct, disregard of duty to country, and an uncomfortable sense that hippies, unless stopped somehow, represent the weak, ineffectual, effeminate American of the future.”