To the Editor:

While Helen Alvare, spokeswoman for the United States Catholic Conference's pro-life office, may be opposed to a health care reform plan that includes abortion, it is important to note that the organization she works for has not specifically made such a statement ("New Health Plan, Old Abortion Fight," news article, Oct. 4).

Indeed, Bishop John Ricard of Baltimore, the spokesman for the Catholic Conference on this issue, while expressing the conference's opposition to abortion coverage, has specifically left open the question of whether coverage would result in the bishops' withdrawing their support for health care reform.

Ms. Alvare criticizes the possibility of President Clinton's holding up health care reform because of his pro-choice position, yet she herself is willing to hold such reform hostage over the politics of abortion. In her zealousness to see her religious views on abortion mirrored in the law, Ms. Alvare is willing to deny coverage to the 37 million Americans who have no health insurance and the 22 million who have inadequate health care.

She also ignores the fact that most Americans -- and most Catholics, according to a recent Gallup Poll -- believe that an abortion can be a moral decision. Ms. Alvare should know that a true moral decision can only be made in an atmosphere free of coercion, including the economic coercion that would result from a law denying coverage for abortion.

The bishops have expressed their hope that abortion would not become a divisive issue in the effort to achieve a comprehensive national health care plan. We share this hope. We would also note that it is substantially in their power to help avoid that divisiveness.

FRANCES KISSLING
Pres., Catholics for a Free Choice
Washington, Oct. 7, 1993

This letter appeared in the 14 October, 1993 edition of the New York Times.