LOS ANGELES -- President Reagan has urged anti-abortion advocates to conduct a memorial service for nearly 17,000 fetuses and embryos discovered earlier this year in a repossessed shipping container, the White House said Wednesday.
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An administration spokesman said Reagan, who as governor signed a 1967 law permitting abortions in California, expressed support for the proposed memorial service in a May 5 letter to Dr. Philip Dreisbach, a Palms Springs, Calif., physician and secretary of the California Pro Life Medical Association. pickup 3rdgraf: '
An administration spokesman said Reagan, who as governor signed a 1967 law permitting abortions in California, expressed support for the proposed memorial service in a May 5 letter to Dr. Philip Dreisbach, a Palms Springs, Calif., physician and secretary of the California Pro Life Medical Association.> pickup 3rdgraf: '
'Your decision to hold a memorial service for these children is most fitting and proper,' Reagan said in the letter. 'On such an occasion we must strengthen our resolve to end this national tragedy.'
The president told the doctor, whose organization represents about 1,000 physicians opposed to abortion, that he probably would not be able to accept an invitation to attend the service, but added:
'I am hopeful that evidence like that found in California will move those who have thus far preferred silence or inaction and encourage them to agree that something must be done (to end abortion).'
Dreisbach's wife, Jeannette, said her husband had written the president at the end of April describing the discovery last February of thousands of embryos and fetuses in the repossessed shipping container near the Los Angeles Harbor.
The huge container had been repossessed from the backyard of Melvin Weisberg, the owner of a now-defunct Santa Monica, Calif., medical lab. Three weeks later investigators found hundreds more fetuses and embryos at Weisberg's home.
Medical records found in the container indicated some of the fetuses and embryos had been aborted as long ago as 1979. The name of the mother was listed on each jar.
The fetuses and embryos, preserved in formaldehyde-filled jars and some reportedly as large as four pounds, were apparently sent to Weisberg's lab for tests from hospitals where the abortions were performed.
Coroner's examiners analyzed 31 of the larger fetuses, some aborted after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but authorities have refused to release them to anti-abortionists who want to conduct the memorial service.
Mrs. Dreisbach also claimed that Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp, a Democratic candidate for state attorney general, has stalled the investigation into the bizarre case for 'political reasons.'
'There is no truth to it all,' said Al Albergate, a spokesman for Van de Kamp.
Albergate said Wednesday authorities, who earlier said they could have up to 2,000 embryos and fetuses, now believe 17,000 were confiscated, most of them from the shipping container. He said the district attorney has ordered health officials to count and catalogue the entire find 'to determine the viability of the fetuses and who performed the abortions.'
'We're not through with our investigation,' Albergate said. 'If any physical evidence is required for some future prosecution we have to have the evidence -- namely the fetuses.'
The state attorney general ruled earlier this month that under California law a doctor can be prosecuted for performing abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy unless the health of the mother is at stake.
Van de Kamp asked for the opinion from the attorney general in connection with the fetus case and authorities indicated at least two Los Angeles area doctors might face criminal charges.
Mrs. Dreisbach said the fetuses were no longer necessary for the investigation and should be released for proper burial.
'They don't keep the body of a murder victim until they try the killer,' she said. 'We think Van de Kamp is being pressured by pro-abortion groups who think we'll put them on stakes and parade them down the street.'
Mrs. Dreisbach said the proposed memorial service would be dignified.
