New Rules to Require States to Pay for Some Abortions

The Clinton Administration has decided to require states to pay for Medicaid abortions for low-income women in cases of rape or incest or if needed to save the life of the pregnant woman, federal Medicaid administrator Bruce C. Vladeck said Friday.

Abortion opponents, alerted to internal government discussions of the issue, charged Friday that the Administration has exceeded Congress’ intent in requiring--rather than merely permitting--states to pay for the operation with federal matching funds.

Roughly half of the states have laws, regulations or constitutional provisions prohibiting them from paying for abortions except to save the woman’s life.

After a long fight, federal Medicaid laws were liberalized in October to remove prohibitions against abortion payments to women pregnant as a result of rape or incest. The Administration is preparing to issue a directive before the end of the year interpreting the new law, Vladeck said.

Previous administrations have allowed states to decide on their own whether to use federal funds to pay for abortions to save the mother’s life. States always have been able to use their own money to pay for such procedures, but if they wanted to use federal matching funds available through the Medicaid programs, they were restricted by federal law.

Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee charged that the directive interprets this year’s abortion language much too broadly and will open up the doors to more abortions.

He said the directive foreshadows a huge fight over the provisions of President Clinton’s health care plan, which includes family planning services as a part of the basic health benefit package for all Americans.

But William W. Hamilton Jr. of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which would like to see the restrictions on Medicaid abortions dropped altogether, applauded the anticipated directive.