MANDATORY TESTS

There is growing concern among pregnant women and the health professionals who work with them about the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS, and the possibility of passing it along to the unborn fetus. Clearly, early testing is important, because recent medical advances have protected the fetus when treatment is started early in the pregnancy.

Nonetheless, forcing all pregnant women to submit to HIV testing goes beyond the boundaries of good medicine and crosses over into the realm of privacy and individual rights. But mandatory HIV testing of pregnant women is exactly what the American Medical Association has endorsed. The AMA support didn't come easily. For a long time the giant collective of about half of the nation's medical doctors has resisted the notion of forcing women to have the tests, mostly because of the same concern about rights. But in a recent 185-181 vote, the AMA's House of Delegates succumbed to arguments that early detection is more important than a patient's right to choose or refuse any medical procedure.

Meanwhile, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, representing the doctors who care for pregnant women and assist with deliveries, still opposes making the tests mandatory. Among the concerns is the fear that too many pregnant women would avoid prenatal care rather than undergo HIV tests.

The AMA decision has no teeth -- yet. However, the AMA's lobbying force is no small consideration. Now that the group has come down on the side of mandatory testing, government agencies may be asked to take a role in forcing women into taking tests they don't want.

This isn't right. Forcing someone to have a test that ought to make good sense on its own merit is wrong. Instead, women need to be educated about the benefits of testing for HIV as long as the intent is to allow treatment to protect the fetus. A real alarm, however, should be raised if such tests are little more than preludes to abortions, which seem to be the all-too-easy answer in cases where pregnancies are likely to result in babies with severe defects -- or the potential to develop full-blown AIDS.