Anti-abortionists may be aghast over the U.S. Supreme Court's decision against most state restrictions on abortion, but their worst fears about Justice Sandra O'Connor weren't realized. What the nation saw once again in the first woman member of its highest court was a Jurist true to her principles.

Justice O'Connor dissented from the triple-case ruling. Although she refused to condemn abortion. she came down on the side of local govement and its right to decide whether to impose some regulations on a practice fraught with social and emotional problems. In the process, she remained firm in her faith in government closest to the people it touches. The abortion issue is a politically delicate one , she and Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist said, and local legislatures should have to face it. The court's majority decided that Akron Ohio, had gone overboard with its 24-hr waiting period and "informed consent" impediments to abortion - impediments which prompt women to seek often-dangerous "underground" operations. A major issue in the cases was the requirement that second-trimester abortions be performed in hospitals. That makes little medical sense - and no economic sense at all with hospital costs already out of control. Sensibly enough. the court majority left states with the right to determine when a minor may have an abQrtion . But Justice Lewis Powell and the Supreme Court's majority clearly confirmed - and even broadened - their 1973 commitment to women's privacy