Abortion ‘Gag Rule’ Likely to Take Effect Soon : Regulations: It’s been 10 months since the high court upheld the directive to federally funded clinics. Enforcement may start as early as today.

Ten months after the Supreme Court upheld federal regulations forbidding doctors and nurses in U.S.-funded clinics to advise pregnant patients about abortion, the Bush Administration is finally poised to put the controversial rules into effect.

Officials of the Department of Health and Human Services in charge of implementing the rules said only that they will be put into effect soon. A White House official said the move could come as early as today.

Last month, moderate Republicans on Capitol Hill urged the Administration to back away from the so-called “gag rule,” but without success. Republican Sens. John H. Chafee of Rhode Island, Bob Packwood of Oregon and Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming argued that pregnant patients should be given full advice about their medical options.

“I would have been happy if we had stayed with the earlier situation” when federal regulations permitted counselors to discuss abortion, Chafee said Thursday. “But, obviously, it looks like they are going to go ahead.”

The long delay in enforcing the rules governing the advice that can be given in federally funded family planning clinics shows the sensitivity of the issue, even in an Administration firmly on record as opposing abortion.

In November, President Bush vetoed a congressional attempt to overturn the high court’s decision.

But Bush also declared his Administration will not be in the business of “gagging” doctors. He directed federal health officials to implement the rules in a way that is “compatible with free speech” and gives a pregnant patient “complete medical information.”

“Clearly, under my directive,” the President said at a later press conference, “patients and doctors can talk about absolutely anything they want, and they should be able to do that.”

Since then, the rules have languished. The President’s directive left health officials with something of a dilemma. If clinic counselors are permitted to discuss abortion, they could be accused of encouraging the “killing of unborn children,” officials said.

But if the rules forbid any discussion of options such as abortion, the government can be accused of “gagging” medical professionals.

In recent months, federal health officials repeatedly have advised clinics that the rules enforcing the ban on abortion referrals will be put into effect shortly.

“All we can say is that it will be soon,” said Lucy Eddinger, a spokeswoman for Health and Human Service’s Office of Population Affairs.

Some who have closely followed the debate within the Administration attribute the 10-month delay to bureaucratic entanglements. Others say that politics is to blame.

“They would have preferred not to deal with this until after November,” said a congressional aide.

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists expressed anger over the delay in implementing the rules.

“Nothing has changed. It’s been business as usual,” said the Rev. Keith Tucci, executive director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. “The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is still getting government money to promote abortion.”

In Los Angeles, a Planned Parenthood official said that most pregnant patients already come to the clinics believing the “gag rule” is in effect.

“It has scared some of them. They think we can’t discuss the issue. But we have been operating under the status quo,” said Marie Paris, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood.

But Paris also described the gag rule as “an ax hanging over us. As we understand it, we will not be able to even mention the word ‘abortion.’ ”

HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary William Reynolds Archer III is in charge of enforcing the strict rules. Although he refused to discuss the issue Thursday, Archer last year accused clinic officials of promoting abortion by “painting it as the most glowing, wonderful thing.”

Planned Parenthood “had done 1 million abortions since 1981,” he said in a published interview, “so I would say that there is a real profit motive in this.”

The fight over abortion counseling began in 1988, during the last year in office of former President Ronald Reagan.

Under Title X of the Public Health Services Act, the government provides $144 million a year to support “family planning services.” About 5 million poor women and teen-agers visit clinics subsidized by the federal aid.

In some areas, U.S. funds pay all the costs of the clinics. In the Los Angeles area, however, federal funds pay less than 10%. The rest comes from state and private funds, officials say.

Congress in 1978 said that no federal funds could be spent for abortion as a “method of family planning.” At first, that was interpreted to mean that clinics may not offer or encourage abortion but that they could refer patients to private abortion doctors.

But in 1988, the Reagan-Bush Administration tightened the rules considerably. Doctors, nurses and counselors were told that they may not discuss abortion with pregnant patients. They also were forbidden to refer patients to abortion facilities.

In response to lawsuits by Planned Parenthood, federal judges blocked the rules from taking effect. In May, however, the Supreme Court, in the case of Rust vs. Sullivan, upheld the regulations on a 5-4 vote and lifted the injunctions blocking their enforcement.

Ever since, clinic directors have been awaiting an order from federal health officials to put the rules into effect.

“My fear has been that (presidential candidate) Pat Buchanan will raise the issue, and then the regulations will be issued the next day,” said Judith DeSarno, executive director of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn.