The Nation: Society: Loosening Up

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In Nebraska last month, responding to accusations that he favors abortion, McGovern insisted that there must be regulating legislation: "You can't just let anybody walk in and request an abortion." More recently, he has submerged his personal beliefs about abortion, stating that it is an issue that each state must decide.

DRUGS. McGovern opposes the legalization of marijuana. He does, however, favor reducing the charge of possession from a felony to a misdemeanor punishable by fines and not prison sentences. As for hard drugs, he says that no penalty is too harsh in dealing with the "murderous, unprincipled" pushers.

On occasion he has tempered his current stand on marijuana by suggesting that, pending further research into its possible deleterious effects, a more promising approach might be to regulate the weed along the same lines as alcohol and tobacco.