Telling the Doctor What Not to Say

In its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, the Supreme Court held that a woman’s decision to end her pregnancy was protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantees of a right to privacy. The court’s decision last month, in Rust vs. Sullivan, to forbid federally funded clinics from even discussing abortion, makes it starkly clear that the issue of abortion touches other, even more fundamental constitutional rights, including free speech. The Rust decision has ignited a firestorm of opposition that is drawing unlikely but powerful allies into a coalition that just may force President Bush to retreat from his dogmatic insistence on implementing this “gag” order.

The American Medical Assn., at its annual meeting last week, condemned the Rust ruling as a threat to the traditional privacy of the doctor-patient relationship. The AMA’s resolutions, which passed on a voice vote with no opposition, also put the usually conservative medical organization on record as supporting legislation currently before Congress to invalidate the Rust decision. These bills would “keep the long arm of the federal government out of the patient-physician relationship.”

Even House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) is deeply troubled by the Rust decision and the broader implications of such blatant government interference with free speech. Michel hardly has a “pro-choice” record: In recent years, he has opposed the use of federal funds for abortions, even in cases of rape, and voted against providing military personnel and their dependents stationed overseas with reproductive health services, including privately paid abortions, at military hospitals. But for Michel, Rust went too far. “Freedom of information, boy, that is one of our most cherished principles,” he said. “I think we’re going to have some in-house discussion on this.”

An overwhelming majority of Americans are also troubled. A major national poll released last week found that 64% of the registered voters surveyed opposed the Rust ruling.

A majority of Congress seems to agree as well. Last week the House decisively passed a health and education appropriations bill that, as amended by Reps. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and John Porter (R-Ill.), would stop enforcement of the abortion counseling ban. Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) has introduced legislation in the Senate also designed to lift the gag rule, and passage is expected early this month.

President Bush nonetheless vows to “veto any legislation that weakens current law or existing regulations” involving abortion. It is increasingly clear that he does so against the best interests and the will of Americans.