Saying that millions of Americans do not realize they are at risk of getting the virus that causes AIDS, Secretary Louis W. Sullivan of the Department of Health and Human Services last week unveiled a national media campaign aimed at stemming the spread of the virus.
The campaign, which will include newpaper, television, and radio public-service announcements, will be particularly directed to women, sexually active young people, and the residents of small towns.
The ads will feature three people who are infected, including two teenagers.
The “America Responds to AIDS’’ campaign had previously targeted advertisements at the partners of drug users, homosexuals, college students, and the newly divorced.
In a partial reversal of a controversial policy, the Bush Administration will permit doctors at federally funded family-planning clinics to advise women and girls about abortions.
In a memorandum released late last week, clinics receiving money under the Title X program were told that doctors may discuss abortion with patients, but nurses and other clinic workers may not.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld rules issued by the Reagan Administration that bar clinics from providing abortion advice unless pregnancy threatens a client’s life.
The Congress has passed legislation to overturn the ban, but is unable to override a veto.
The outgoing head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will advise his successor to include a “Teaching from Space’’ program among his top priorities.
Richard H. Truly said in a speech last week that he will encourage Daniel S. Goldin, President Bush’s nominee for NASA administrator, to include Barbara Morgan, an Idaho teacher, on an upcoming space-shuttle mission.
Further, Mr. Truly said, NASA should “use the medium of space to enhance education in many areas’’ and inspire young people.
“The next step for us will be to make routine a program of teaching from space,’' he said. “NASA senior management has reviewed this situation annually, and I am more than satisifed. I am eager.’'
Mr. Truly said the teaching emphasis should begin with the involvement of Ms. Morgan, who was the “Teacher in Space’’ alternate to Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire teacher who died in the 1986 explosion of the Challenger shuttle.
The House last week failed to override President Bush’s veto of a tax bill that would have provided a $300 tax credit for each child under the age of 16.
The override attempt did not garner even a simple majority, failing 211 to 215.
The bill would have made student-loan interest deductible and allowed donors to deduct the full current value of property gifts, aiding private schools. A provision in the Senate’s version to create a direct-loan program died in a House-Senate conference.
