Reno Calls for U.S. Response to Anti-Abortion Attacks : Policy: New attorney general is sworn in and vows to seek federal remedy when force is used against women at clinics.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, sworn in during a White House ceremony Friday, said the federal government has an obligation to respond to physical attempts to prevent a woman from carrying out her right to abortion.

She said she would study the law to determine how the Justice Department might appropriately react to the slaying of Dr. David Gunn, a Pensacola, Fla., physician who was shot to death by an anti-abortion protester outside a clinic where Gunn performed abortions. The suspect in the case is being held on a state murder charge.

“Just as there should be a federal remedy for racial . . . and gender discrimination, somehow or other there has got to be a federal response to interference through physical conduct” with a woman seeking a legal abortion, Reno said in an interview with reporters a few hours after taking office.

“I want to look at the laws on the books now to see if there is any remedy that we might undertake in response,” she said.

Reno emphasized, however, that she was speaking only about a response to physical interference at abortion clinics, not about curbing abortion foes’ free-speech rights.

At the White House, where she was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White, Reno said her confirmation hearing and swift Senate approval revealed “a new spirit in America” in which people will take up public service to fight crime and drugs and give children an opportunity to flourish.

In the interview, Reno signaled that she will chart a sharply altered course than her predecessor, focusing on such questions as whether blacks and other minorities are treated unfairly by the nation’s criminal justice system.

“The criminal justice system in America at every level is going to have to address the issue of disparate treatment,” Reno said.

Reno’s predecessor, Atty. Gen. William P. Barr, last June called the system “fair” and cited studies that he said showed people were treated equally.

At the same time, he acknowledged that some laws--such as those imposing mandatory minimum sentences for possession of small amounts of crack cocaine--may fall heavily on blacks. “But it’s not because of discriminatory intent. It has a disparate impact,” he said.

Reno noted with pride that a statewide review in Florida, where she served as state attorney in Dade County for 15 years, found that her office was among two out of 20 that were able to enforce so-called career criminal statutes without disproportionately hurting minorities.

At the White House, President Clinton said Reno “made her own swift confirmation possible.”

“You showed us that your career in public service, working on the front lines in your community, fighting crime, understanding the impact on victims . . . mending the gritty social fabric of a vibrant but troubled urban area is excellent preparation for carrying forward the banner of justice for all the American people,” Clinton said.

In her interview later, the nation’s first female attorney general revealed that she is struggling with the transition from veteran metropolitan area prosecutor to the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

She described with obvious delight how she had walked the mile from her rented downtown Washington apartment to her temporary office at the Executive Office Building next to the White House.

She said that “people would stop and talk to me,” in a way reminiscent of her experiences in Miami, where she maintained a listed home telephone number. “There’s something about having to take a (phone) call and working through it,” she said.

But now the avid outdoorswoman is being told by her FBI security detail that while she may hike the Appalachian Trail, she must fly on the FBI jet rather than on a commercial airliner.

As a prosecutor, Reno prided herself on being easily available to the 200 lawyers on her staff. At the Justice Department, she said: “I’d like to have an open-door policy, but I don’t know if it’s possible.”

Shortly after meeting with reporters, Reno headed for the Justice Department and marked her first day in office by walking through the basement cafeteria, shaking hands and chatting with surprised employees.

Reno discounted reports that the White House already had picked her key subordinates, saying she is conducting interviews and believes that she has veto rights over presidential appointees to her department.

As for Webster Hubbell, a golfing partner of Clinton’s who has been serving as the White House liaison at the Justice Department, Reno said it has not been determined what office he will hold.

“My understanding is that he is assistant to the attorney general at this point,” she said.

She noted that he was introduced to her as “Hillary (Rodham) Clinton’s law partner, the former mayor of Little Rock and a former justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court.”

Reno also brushed aside the suggestion that White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum had taken over Justice Department functions in the absence of a confirmed attorney general and could represent a rival to her authority.

“No, I’m taller than he is,” said Reno, who is 6-foot-2, “a lot taller than he is.”