February 12, 1985

Faced with a growing number of malpractice claims and the rising expectations of patients, a significant number of the nation's doctors have either abandoned the practice of obstetrics or are seriously considering it. According to several experts, the care of women in pregnancy, childbirth and the period immediately afterward has become too risky financially and too draining emotionally for hundreds of specialists across the country, particularly in states like New York, Florida and California where malpractice suits are most frequent and jury awards are most generous. ''A lot of obstetricians are leaving the speciality and concentrating instead on gynecology,'' said William Reilly of New Jersey Medical Underwriters. ''Opting out of delivering babies is one way to protect yourself against the malpractice epidemic.'' Gynecologists specialize in the treatment of women's functions and diseases other than pregnancy and childbirth.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1985 International A missile defense system in space will be developed by Washington even if an agreement is reached to eliminate nuclear weapons, President Reagan vowed. (Page A1, Column 6.) False data on aid for El Salvador is being given to Congress by the Reagan Administration, according to a bipartisan Congressional caucus. The group said Congress had been supplied with ''insufficient, misleading and in some cases false information'' on the purposes and results of the aid program. The caucus said the aid was worsening El Salvador's problems and prolonging the civil war. (A1:5.)

A Congressional caucus accused the Administration today of having supplied ''insufficient, misleading and in some cases false information'' on aid for El Salvador. A report issued by the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, a bipartisan group, says economic and military aid, which will total at least $557 million this year, is worsening El Salvador's problems and prolonging the civil war. One reason, the report says, is that most of the spending has been military, despite Administration claims that most has been for economic and social development. It says the Administration has ''provided Congress with overly optimistic reports'' on the war.

Companies An I.B.M. profit rise will be ''very difficult'' to achieve in the first quarter, the company said. It cited the ''unrelenting strength of the dollar,'' which has hurt revenues from overseas sales. But analysts said major customers were also likely to delay purchases to await new I.B.M. products, such as the Sierra mainframe computers, which may be presented as early as today. (Page D1.) Digital Equipment has stopped making its Rainbow personal computer. The move appears to mark a defeat in the company's campaign to break into personal computers, but officials hinted that they may try again with a different product. (D4.)

VIRUSES related to those that cause common warts are coming under increasing suspicion as factors in causing human cancer of the cervix and other types of malignancy. Scientists in the United States and abroad are finding strong evidence linking some of the viruses in a family called papilloma with genital cancers, notably cancers of the cervix and vulva, and with an uncommon kind of skin cancer. The recent findings seem largely to eclipse earlier evidence linking genital cancers to herpes viruses. The virus called herpes simplex or herpes hominus type 2 has been under study for decades as a possible cause of genital cancers, but scientists say the evidence linking papilloma viruses with these cancers is now far stronger than the evidence relating to herpes. The new findings are expected to have an important impact on efforts to prevent and treat genital cancers, particularly in women. Many specialists believe that in time it should be possible to develop a vaccine against the types of papilloma virus that are under the greatest suspicion.