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On February 19, 1980, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) again began paying for medically necessary abortions for women eligible for Medicaid, the program under which the federal and state governments share the cost of necessary medical care for indigent Americans, most of them public welfare recipients. For two and one-half years, federal Medicaid funds had not been available except under extremely restrictive conditions. On January 15, Federal District Court Judge John Francis Dooling, Jr., ruled that Congressional re-strictions on Medicaid payments for medi-cally necessary abortions were unconstitutional, and ordered DHEW to resume payments. The Department began to do so after the US Supreme Court refused to stay Judge Dooling's order pending its own decision (expected in June) as to the constitutionality of the restrictions. At …