WASHINGTON WATCH: POPULATION CONFAB HITS STUMBLING BLOCK

The International Conference on Population and Development, now taking place in Cairo, Egypt, demonstrates that there are few issues that divide the world as bitterly as abortion. But if one thing should be learned from this U.N.-sponsored gathering, it is that women's rights, education and equality are essential in controlling the world's population and improving the quality of life all around.

No one should dispute that the world's population explosion must be checked. The numbers are simply mind-boggling. In the past four decades the world's population has doubled to 5.7 billion. That number threatens to triple by the end of the next century. The current annual increase -- 86 million -- is the largest ever, the equivalent of adding the population of Mexico to the world each year.

The impact of such growth can be seen most drastically in developing nations, where ambitious plans to improve the quality of life are too often overwhelmed by the increasing number of mouths to feed. But the ramifications of rapid population growth also can be found in wealthy nations, most evidently in pollution and other environmental degradation.

Grappling with the issue of how best to control population growth and encourage economic development has been the purpose of the Cairo conference. Not all of the 182 countries there are in full concert. But the end result is expected to be an action plan, 90 percent of which was written and agreed to before the conference began. The pricklier issues -- on reproductive health and family planning services, adolescent sex education, and abortion -- were to be settled during the eight days of the conference, with the goal being a declaration signed by all. In an attempt to reach unanimity, the action plan was organized as a fluid framework, leaving specific courses of action to be decided by individual countries. No part of the plan, which is hoped will be used as a reference guide to dealing with population issues, is mandated.

The big news coming out of the conference this week has been the dispute over the issue of abortion. A handful of countries, led by the Vatican, have rejected any mention of the word as "immoral" and a "threat to the sanctity of family life." Vice President Al Gore, leader of the U.S. delegation, calls the Vatican's protests a "red herring." You decide. Following is the specific section on abortion that the Vatican rejects:

"Prevention of unwanted pregnancies must always be given the highest priority and all attempts should be made to eliminate the need for abortion. In circumstances in which abortion is legal, such abortion should be safe. In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning."

The Vatican's demand for removal of this section creates a roadblock since many countries believe that abortion -- in particular, unsafe abortion -- should be discussed more openly than it is. In addition, many of these countries believe abortion choice should be encouraged as a matter of basic reproductive rights, and too much has already been compromised on the issue.

"Morality becomes hypocrisy if it means accepting mothers suffering or dying in connection with unwanted pregnancy and illegal, unsafe abortions... A conference of this status and importance should not neglect the agony of millions of women who are risking their lives and health," intoned Gro Harlem Brundtland, prime minister of Norway.

"Any language that implies a willingness to countenance that abortion should be permitted is not acceptable," replies the Papal spokesman, Joaquin Navarro.

The "abortion section" is not the only one under protest by the Vatican. Other sections on contraception are also criticized, although nearly every country at the conference recognizes that much of the progress in the past 30 years has been the result of contraceptives.

Unfortunately, the furor over the abortion dispute has obscured many of the more important agreements. Foremost is the recognition that empowering women leads to higher productivity, lower infant mortality and lower fertility. Over the long term, those at the conference agree, the single most effective and enduring way of moderating population growth is by giving women more and better education.

Almost twice as many women as men are illiterate, and the differential is growing in the world. Illiterate girls tend to marry young and have many babies. This condition must be addressed, asserts the conference.

In one study cited in Cairo: where women are excluded from secondary education, the average woman has seven children; but if 40 percent of women go to secondary school, the average drops to three children. Not only do educated mothers have fewer children, the study says, they care for them better.

This should not be surprising for us in America, where we struggle with our own immediate problems of teenage pregnancy and expanding welfare, caused in part by poorly educated girls, often high school drop-outs, with little job opportunity.

The conference marks its half-way point today. Much more than abortion remains to be discussed -- and reported.

Jon K. Rust, a former editorial page editor of the Southeast Missourian, temporarily resides in the Washington, D.C., area.