But last fall, city and church officials reached an agreement under which the city would provide birth-control information to children in homes run by the archdiocese.

Mayor Robert F. Wagner, a Catholic, angered church leaders when he allowed welfare centers to distribute birth-control information in the 1950's.

Without any action expected to allow safe, legal abortions, health experts predict that the abortion rate will remain high until birth-control information and supplies are universally accessible.

Because men have no equivalent of the regular gynecological exam, there is no established place for them to receive birth-control information.

Easier access to birth-control information and devices and to abortion could reduce the number of unwanted children and improve the timing of those whose mothers would have preferred to wait.

As for the second assumption, it is the proper responsibility of parents and physicians - and not schools - to provide children with birth-control information and pills.

They are finally getting around to legalizing clinics that will be open to anyone-married or not-and making it a law that all mothersmust be supplied with birth-control information.

These women do have access to free birth-control information and devices, yet continue to have babies they can neither shelter nor support.

He also testified before Congress against Federal policy on the dissemination and coordination of birth-control information to individuals and public agencies on request.

She generally backed the board president, Robert F. Wagner Jr., but opposed him on starting clinics to give out birth-control information.