House Sustains Bush’s Abortion Counseling Ban

President Bush won a highly emotional veto battle Tuesday when the House failed to override his rejection of legislation that included a provision allowing abortion counseling in federally funded family planning clinics.

Bush opponents, including the House Democratic leadership and almost one-third of the Republicans in the chamber, mustered 276 votes. But that was 12 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto of a $205-billion spending bill that would have blocked enforcement of an Administration “gag rule” banning abortion counseling during the coming year.

Congress has failed to override each of Bush’s 24 vetoes.

The 276-156 vote followed the President’s veto of the bill earlier in the day. If the House had voted to override the veto, the Senate--which passed the legislation earlier this month in a 72-25 vote--was expected to follow suit.

The result in the House was a blow to Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), who had lobbied fellow Democrats personally, made a rare closing speech on the floor and earlier had predicted that the House would override the veto.

But the ferocity of the debate and the strong bipartisan coalition opposed to the President indicated that the issue is likely to be injected into presidential and congressional campaigns next year.

In California, for example, U.S. Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein issued a strong statement condemning the veto, saying: “Effectively, the President is turning back the clock to a time when the women of this country had to face back-alley and medically unsafe butchers whose only goal was to make a fast buck. . . . President Bush has caved in to the most extremist elements of his party. And the victims of the President’s pandering will be millions of American women.”

The House debate was far more emotional than most legislative battles, with partisans on both sides frequently bursting into applause as the rhetoric grew more impassioned.

“The failure to override is something women won’t forget in this country, nor should they,” said Rep. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.), who argued that the rule “treats women like second-class citizens.”

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), however, said that failure to put the rule into effect would transform family planning clinics into “sales offices for abortion clinics.”

Foley said immediately before the vote that the issue was not a partisan one, adding: “This is a mistake the President has made, and it is up to Congress to rectify that mistake.”

But White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said after the vote that the veto was “not a political decision. It’s one based on the President’s principles and beliefs. . . . He’ll continue to hold that position.”

Despite high-pressure lobbying on both sides, the vote closely paralleled the 272-156 tally by which the House had approved the legislation after a Senate-House conference committee had given it final shape. A total of 222 Democrats, 53 Republicans and 1 independent voted to override the President, while 43 Democrats joined 113 Republicans voting to uphold the veto.

Major operators of family planning clinics that now receive federal funds have said that they would close--or reject federal funding--rather than submit to the regulation that limits the kind of advice health care workers could give to pregnant women.

The President insisted in his veto message that a recent memo he sent to Louis W. Sullivan, secretary of health and human services, made it clear that the regulations did not impose a “gag rule” on doctor-patient communications.

Opponents of the rule, however, said that the restrictions would apply to nurses, social workers and others who handle most of the patients at the family planning clinics run by Planned Parenthood and other groups.

The rule was first promulgated in 1988 during the Ronald Reagan Administration. But it has never been enforced because of a series of court challenges. The Supreme Court, however, said in a decision last spring that the rule did not violate constitutional guarantees of free speech. The ban now is expected to take effect in the next few months.

The fate of the underlying bill providing funds for popular health, education and worker safety programs remained uncertain immediately after the override vote. In the past, when Congress sustained similar vetoes on appropriations bills, the offending provision was removed and the measure was approved again by the House and Senate and returned to the President’s desk with no other changes.

Democrats who have the major influence on the appropriations process, however, indicated that they may decide to continue spending at last year’s level and postpone consideration of another version of the vetoed bill until Congress returns in January.

Several national women’s organizations condemned the President for his veto and vowed to continue the battle to repeal the controversial regulation.

“President Bush’s victory today in Congress will cost American women dearly,” said Kate Michelman, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League. “We must elect a pro-choice President or a veto-proof Congress.”

“The Administration has bowed to the will of extreme anti-choice groups and condemned low-income women to government censorship when consulting with physicians about their family planning needs,” said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center.

“We have no choice but to keep fighting until this physician’s gag rule is eliminated,” she added.

Judith Lichtman, president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund, said the veto indicated that Bush “will still kowtow to the extremist fringe” on the abortion counseling issue.

“The drive to eliminate the gag rule is not over,” Lichtman added, saying that she expects another ban on enforcement of the regulation to be included in the appropriations bill when Congress sends it to Bush a second time.

Vote to Override Abortion Veto

Here is how members of the California delegation voted in the failed House effort to override President Bush’s veto of a bill that would have blocked his ban on abortion counseling at federally funded clinics:

Democrats for veto override--Anderson, Beilenson, Berman, Boxer, Brown, Condit, Dellums, Dixon, Dooley, Dymally, Edwards, Fazio, Lantos, Lehman, Martinez, Matsui, Miller, Mineta, Panetta, Pelosi, Roybal, Stark, Torres, Waters, Waxman.

Republicans for--Campbell, Riggs, Thomas.

Democrats against--None.

Republicans against--Cox, Cunningham, Dannemeyer, Doolittle, Dornan, Dreier, Gallegly, Herger, Hunter, Lagomarsino, Lewis, Lowery, McCandless, Moorhead, Packard, Rohrabacher.

Democrats not voting--Levine.