President Held Almost Certain to Veto Abortion Funding Bill

President Bush is almost certain to veto legislation that provides abortion funding to poor women who are the victims of rape and incest, White House officials said Monday.

Despite Bush’s statement last week that he was seeking “room for flexibility” on the issue, two White House officials said a series of White House meetings and phone conversations with congressional opponents of abortion and Republican leaders had failed to provide “any good, solid reasons” why the President should change his opposition to such funding.

A formal veto threat may come today, either in a letter from Bush to lawmakers who are meeting on the legislation, or in a White House statement, officials said.

Administration and congressional sources suggested that in the wake of the failed coup in Panama the White House is particularly sensitive to charges that Bush is unwilling to back up his words with deeds. “We don’t need any more ‘Bush waffles’ stuff,” said an adviser to the White House.

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu met Monday with key congressional Republican leaders in the anti-abortion movement, including Reps. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) and Vin Weber (R-Minn.), and had half a dozen phone conversations with others involved, including Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

White House and congressional sources said the group concluded that a compromise that would not turn into a full-scale battle with abortion-rights advocates was not possible at this point.

At issue is a spending bill for the departments of Health and Human Services and Labor that contains language allowing federal funding of Medicaid abortions for women who are the victims of rape or incest. Such funding has been outlawed by Congress each year since 1982.

But last week, in a move that surprised opponents and supporters alike, the House accepted Senate language allowing such funding. The House has traditionally been the strongest line of defense for anti-abortion advocates. The legislative ball is now in the court of the Senate, which has to approve or alter any changes the House made in the bill. However, since the House accepted the Senate provision dealing with abortion, the Senate has little reason to reopen that issue.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Bush’s current stance on abortion is that he opposes abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or a threat to the life of the mother. But Bush opposes federal funding of abortion except when the mother’s life is threatened. Fitzwater insisted Monday that Bush’s position has not changed and that the “flexibility” on the issue he spoke of last week was meant to signal only that he was willing to listen to suggestions on compromise language.

Bush said Friday that while he has not changed his position on the issue, he was searching for flexibility and he would not say if he planned to veto the bill. When the House considered the bill, the White House sent a letter to House leaders saying Bush would sign the legislation unless it contained the abortion-funding language.