Senate Defies Foreign Aid Bill Veto : Abortion: The vote rejects a provision blocking money for U.N. family planning. Failure of the measure could stall funds to Poland, Israel.

In a vote that could scuttle a $14.6-billion foreign aid bill that includes aid for Poland, the Senate decided to defy a presidential veto threat and insisted on earmarking $15 million for a United Nations family planning agency strongly condemned by President Bush.

In a 52-44 roll-call vote, the Senate rejected a House-passed provision that would effectively block the funds from going to the agency by requiring that before the money is made available, the President must certify that the agency does not support coerced abortions in China.

Bush, in his veto threat, has said that he would not allow U.S. government funds to compel abortion. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), sponsor of the provision, countered that the money would not be used in China or to finance abortions elsewhere.

The foreign aid bill now must go back to the House for reconsideration. Managers of the bill have warned that failure to approve the legislation before Congress adjourns for the year, perhaps before Thanksgiving, would deny immediate aid for Poland and result in cutbacks for Israel, Egypt and other countries receiving U.S. assistance.

Congress also defied the President’s threat to veto a $4-billion money bill for the District of Columbia, including in it another abortion provision he opposes. The provision would allow the nation’s capital to use its own tax dollars to finance abortions if it wishes. The President also vetoed an earlier version of that bill, which included government-funded abortions for victims of rape and incest.

Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.) charged that the bill would allow “abortion on demand . . . after-the-fact birth control” in Washington.

Supporters, however, said that former President Ronald Reagan had signed a D.C. money bill seven times with the same language and that Bush would be violating a recent Supreme Court decision if he did not allow elected city officials to decide whether to finance abortions or not.

In a setback for the President, the House voted, 228 to 191, for the D.C. appropriations bill, but fell far short of a veto-proof majority. The Senate then passed the bill by voice vote and sent it to the President.

The House debate drew predictions from abortion rights advocates that Bush’s unyielding stand on abortion-related issues would be politically harmful to his party.

“He has walked the Republican Party down the plank,” said Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.), while Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) added: “We’ll take it to the people.”

In an angry rejoinder from the anti-abortion bloc, Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) accused his opponents of being “death squads of the left.” Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) said that abortion rights advocates are “obsessed by political lust.”

Earlier Wednesday, the House passed by voice vote a $157-billion appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services without a disputed provision that would allow government-paid abortions for poor women in cases of rape or incest. The Senate, bowing to Bush’s veto threats, is expected to approve the measure in that form and send it to the White House.

Bush previously vetoed this bill when it included the rape-incest provision and the House failed by 51 votes to override.

BACKGROUND

Congress and the White House have tangled over several different abortion issues during debate on major appropriations bills. A $14.6-billion foreign aid bill that includes money for Poland and Hungary is the latest measure to be imperiled by the volatile issue of abortion. In the foreign aid bill, the fight is over $15 million for a U.N. family planning fund. The House earlier this week bowed to President Bush’s objection that the U.N. agency is abetting coerced abortions and sterilizations in China.