Meeting on Thursday and Friday, May 7 and 8, at the peak of the national upheaval over the invasion of Cambodia and the deaths of four students at Kent State University, the Executive Council of the American Psychoanalytic Association broke precedent and adopted a resolution expressing opposition to the extension of the Vietnam War to Cambodia. In the fifty-seven years of its existence the Association has never before taken a position on any political issue; the dominant viewpoint has always been that it is inappropriate for a scientific organization to express itself on political matters.
The resolution on Cambodia, whose entire text is printed on page 8 of this issue, was sent in the form of a telegram to President Nixon. Copies of the telegram, with a brief covering statement, were also sent to the members of President Nixon's cabinet, to each member of the Senate and the House of Representatives,
and to the Governors of all the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. This unprecedented action by the major psychoanalytic organization in the United States aroused the interest of the news media; it was promptly picked up by local newspapers and television stations in San Francisco and was carried in newspapers across the country.
In the same meeting of Council another matter with strong political implications also became the subject of a statement of opinion when Council approved by a large majority the adoption of a position statement on the question of therapeutic abortion. The statement, based on recommendations from the Committee on Social Problems, takes the following position:
“We support a woman's right to choose whether or not to continue her pregnancy.
“We view a therapeutic abortion as a medical procedure to be agreed upon between a patient and her physician and one which should be removed entirely from the domain of criminal law.”