Don’t Quash Medical Advice : Bush should drop abortion ‘gag rule’

This week’s strong show of congressional intent should send a unmistakable message to President Bush: To enforce the so-called “gag rule” on abortion counseling would go against the advice of medical professionals and the will of most Americans.

The Senate Thursday joined the House in approving a bill that would prevent enforcement of an Administration-backed ban on abortion counseling at federally funded clinics. Bush has vowed to veto the bill.

The provision is part of a $205-billion appropriations measure to fund three federal departments. The Senate vote was comfortably more than the two-thirds vote needed to override a veto. The House approved the same measure Wednesday, and while the vote there fell 18 short of a two-thirds margin, it signals Congress’ resolve to block this fundamentally unfair rule.

The 1988 rule bans the 4,000 federally funded family planning clinics from making any mention of abortion--even when pregnant patients specifically request information about this option or referrals to a physician who might perform one.

Most Americans (according to public opinion polls), the medical profession and many Republicans oppose the gag rule because it allows the government to withhold information about a pregnant woman’s medical condition and options simply because of her economic status.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rule’s constitutionality last spring, clearing the way for enforcement. The court based its decision, in part, on its finding that congressional intent on the issue of abortion counseling was “ambiguous.” That finding galvanized Congress into this week’s unmistakable expression of intent.

The White House also left Congress with no choice. Several Republican senators, physicians and abortion rights advocates negotiated for months with Bush’s staff to find compromise language to avert precisely the showdown that is now inevitable. Such language was drafted but reportedly rejected by White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.

Perhaps the President never meant to compromise. Late Tuesday, only hours before the House vote, Bush directed Health Secretary Louis W. Sullivan to make minor but largely meaningless changes in the rule’s enforcement.

But Congress’ strong vote this week was an emphatic rejection of merely cosmetic changes in the gag rule. Bush must now realize that he gains very little by vetoing this bill. All Americans--and particularly all American women--have much to lose.