Policy Switch Easy as Stroke of Clinton Pen : Authority: New President likely to exercise power to reverse at will predecessors’ rules on abortion, the military, AIDS and other issues.

With the proverbial “stroke of a pen,” President Bill Clinton in his first days in office is expected to reverse dozens of controversial Ronald Reagan-George Bush Administration policies on topics as diverse as abortion, the military, union contracting, AIDS and clean air.

In those areas and others, the Republican presidents used their executive authority, rather than legislation, to further their will. For the same reason, these policies can be instantly changed by Clinton.

Such quick moves would not only show the new President to be bold and decisive, but could also satisfy key interest groups that fueled the Democratic victory: women, gays, organized labor and racial minorities, among others.

Bush, for example, maintained the support of abortion foes through a series of orders that limited abortion. He blocked U.S. aid to international groups that supported abortion, put into effect the so-called gag rule forbidding abortion counseling in federally funded clinics and prohibited the importation of RU-486, the French abortion pill.

During his campaign, Clinton promised to reverse all of these policies. Abortion-rights leaders say they are confident that as President, Clinton will waste no time issuing directives that scrap the Reagan-Bush policies.

Here are the areas where Clinton has promised quick action:

Gays in the military. In a 1981 policy directive, former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger barred all homosexuals from military service, whether or not there was evidence that they had engaged in overt homosexual acts. This goes beyond military law, which demands discharge for persons who engage in “indecent acts.”

“I fully expect him to make an executive order” ending the prohibition on gays in the service, said Sandra Lowe, a New York attorney who has worked on high-profile cases involving discharged homosexuals. Clinton explicitly promised such a move, but she added: “The longer you wait to do these things, the harder it gets to do them.”

Women in combat. Congress has repealed some laws barring women from combat service. The new commander in chief is expected to order the military to begin placing women in some of these jobs.

“First he should open aircraft” to women, said Carolyn Becraft, an expert on military women’s issues at the Women’s Equity Action League.

Fetal tissue. The new President is expected to lift a federal ban on research using tissue from an aborted fetus. Scientists have complained that this ban, first imposed by the Reagan Administration in 1988, has halted medical research that could prove beneficial to patients with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other conditions.

RU-486. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration issued a directive asking customs agents to halt any importation of RU-486, the French abortion pill. Previously, the agency had permitted Americans to import unapproved drugs for their personal use. Under Bush, the FDA has also moved slowly in authorizing research on the abortion-inducing drug. Clinton is expected to reverse the FDA directive.

Gag rule. Almost certainly, the Clinton Administration will throw out the Reagan-Bush regulation that forbids counselors in federally subsidized family planning clinics from advising patients about abortion. A solid majority of Congress has voted to rescind this policy, and a federal appeals court blocked its enforcement this week.

Overseas abortions. In still another abortion-related policy, Bush ordered that no international aid funds go to organizations involved in abortion in any manner. This has cut off funding to groups that promote contraception and family planning in the Third World because some money also pays for abortion services in other countries. Clinton has promised to revise or retract this directive.

HIV-infected immigrants. Under pressure from conservatives, the Bush Administration has barred immigrants and travelers with the AIDS virus from entering the United States. Medical professionals and gay activists have denounced the policy as unfair and unnecessary, since the virus cannot be spread casually or through the air, as with tuberculosis. Clinton is expected to lift the ban.

Union contracting. In October, the Bush Administration reversed a long-standing Labor Department policy and outlawed union work agreements governing large federal projects. This won him the last-minute endorsement of the Associated Builders and Contractors. But at the behest of the AFL-CIO, Clinton is expected to reverse the Bush directive and return to the previous pro-union policy.

Union dissidents. At the behest of the National Right to Work Committee, Bush issued a directive earlier this year requiring 35,000 local unions to compile and report detailed accounts of their spending. This was intended to protect the rights of dissidents in “agency shop” unions to seek refunds if their dues were spent for political purposes. Union officials complained that the policy would cost them millions of dollars for accounting and paperwork, and Clinton is expected to repeal it.

Council on Competitiveness. This pro-business White House council, now headed by Vice President Dan Quayle, has become something of a black hole for regulations intended to protect consumers, workers and the environment. Hidden from public view, it has acted on complaints from corporate officials and repeatedly blocked regulations emerging from government agencies.

“It’s a secret court of appeals for big polluters,” charged Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club. During the campaign, Clinton called the council a “back-door entrance for special interests” and said he would alter its operation or scrap it.

Clean air. The Bush Administration has withheld issuance of at least 50 regulations required by the Clean Air Act of 1990 that were intended to control smog, toxic pollution and ozone depletion.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House subcommittee on health and the environment, said he expects Clinton and Vice President-elect Al Gore to move quickly to issue new rules for reformulated gasoline and new exhaust standards for urban buses and require public notices for companies that emit pollutants.

National security. Clinton is expected to restructure the Cold War-oriented National Security Council to focus more on economics and foreign trade. This proposed change is not only symbolic, but recognizes the changed world. Clinton has said his greatest foreign battles may well be economic, not military and diplomatic.

Haitian refugees. On May 24, Bush issued a directive ordering the Coast Guard to intercept and to return all Haitian refugees fleeing the troubled island. Both international law and the Refugee Act of 1980 requires the U.S. government to offer asylum to refugees who are fleeing political persecution.

The Bush policy is being reviewed by the Supreme Court, but civil rights activists say they expect that Clinton will reverse it. If so, refugees would be entitled to an interview to determine their reasons for fleeing.

Lobbying. Both Clinton and independent candidate Ross Perot criticized the Washington “revolving door,” referring to officials who leave government work, but go to work for special interests and return to lobby their old agencies. Clinton is expected to demand that his appointees agree not to lobby for a period of perhaps five years after leaving government.

Warren Christopher, the Los Angeles lawyer who heads the Clinton transition team, promised Friday that “you’ll see the most stringent set of ethics rules that have ever been promulgated.”

White House staff. The staff for the President includes hundreds of employees housed in the old Executive Office Building next door to the executive mansion. During the campaign, Clinton said he would cut this staff by 25%, which would symbolize both a desire to save money and to return more authority to Cabinet secretaries.

Classified information. The Reagan-Bush administrations issued a series of directives limiting the release of information by government agencies. For example, Reagan revoked a Jimmy Carter directive that opened for review most classified documents after 25 or 50 years.

Clinton has spoken generally about supporting the Freedom of Information Act.

Times staff writers Melissa Healy, Marlene Cimons, William Eaton and Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.