Abortion Coverage Included in House Panel’s Health Bill

The House Ways and Means Committee voted by a larger-than-expected margin Wednesday to include coverage for abortions in its version of the health care bill, although advocates on both sides of the controversial issue said the real showdown will come later this summer.

A proposal by Rep. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to bar abortion services except in extremely limited circumstances was rejected, 23 to 15, mainly along party lines. Four Democrats voted to restrict abortion coverage while three Republicans voted against Bunning’s amendment.

“This is not a final vote on this matter,” Acting Chairman Sam Gibbons (D-Fla.) said in advance of the committee’s action. “This is a very controversial question.”

Two other congressional panels--the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee--previously have voted to provide coverage for abortions in their versions of the health reform legislation sought by President Clinton. But efforts to exclude or restrict access to abortion are expected at every stage of the legislative process.

“We got more votes than we expected,” said Rep. Barbara B. Kennelly (D-Conn.), a committee member who lobbied her colleagues on the issue.

As Rep. Gerald D. Kleczka (D-Wis.) put it: “I might not like abortions, but they are legal.” Kleczka earlier had proposed an alternative plan to give insurance companies the option of refusing to provide abortion services, but it was rejected, 33 to 5.

In another test of strength, the committee rejected, on a 22-16 roll call, a move by Rep. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) to keep state laws regulating abortion--such as waiting periods, parental consent rules and restrictions on terminating pregnancies in the last trimester--from being preempted by federal law.

The Ways and Means panel adopted, 20 to 18, a proposal by Rep. Fred Grandy (R-Iowa) to include hearing aids for children in the standard benefits package. Although Gibbons pleaded with Democrats not to approve any additional benefits without finding revenue to pay for them, the panel did just that on Grandy’s amendment after voting down his plan to provide the estimated $100 million needed by making slight reductions in subsidies for small business.