Tried to Cut U.S. Funds to Planned Parenthood : Official Reprimanded on Abortion Issue

An official of the Health and Human Services Department has reprimanded a subordinate for trying single-handedly to drop all Planned Parenthood clinics from the $142.5-million Family Planning Program, officials said today.

Assistant Health Secretary Robert Windom issued a written reprimand to his deputy assistant, Jo Ann Gasper, a strong abortion foe, for directing the 10 regional health administrators last week to drop the Planned Parenthood clinics from the federal program on the ground that the organization favors abortion.

About 47 of the 750 Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide perform abortions using non-federal funds.

Gasper “has been instructed to get advance clearance from her supervisor” before taking any other action, a department official said.

Gasper was not available for comment, but department spokesman James Brown confirmed that the order to drop the clinics from the federal program was issued by her last Wednesday, a day before the 14th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

Windom rescinded Gasper’s order the next day, after “a significant number of phone calls” that either applauded or criticized the action.

“Because of the snowstorm (in Washington last Thursday), there weren’t a flood of phone calls, just enough,” Brown said.

A statement issued by Windom said the order “had never been discussed, staffed or cleared by anyone in HHS. The director is being reprimanded for her unilateral action and for not going through proper channels.”