Bill Would End Family Planning Program : Congress: House Appropriations panel passes a measure that would cut federal departments and rein in federal regulatory powers.

In a show of strength for anti-abortion forces and other conservative groups, the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to abolish the federal government’s principal family planning program, established 25 years ago.

The panel handed that victory and others to abortion opponents as it took up a bill that would slash spending for dozens of social programs and eliminate many others--including the office of surgeon general, a post that became embroiled in controversy this year when the Senate rejected President Clinton’s nominee largely because of his abortion record.

Additional anti-abortion riders are expected when the panel continues work on the bill, probably today. They include one allowing states to impose new limits on Medicaid funding for abortions for poor women.

The full House is expected to go along with most if not all of the provisions. Prospects in the Senate are less certain, however, with family planning supporters holding out hope that they can derail the legislation in that chamber.

The bill also would reduce the Department of Education budget by 16%, the Labor Department by 12% and the Department of Health and Human Services by 4%. It would abolish a summer jobs program for youth, energy assistance for the poor and President Clinton’s education reform initiative, Goals 2000.

In addition, the legislation is littered with mandates to rein in the power of regulatory agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Labor Relations Board.

The proposal to abolish the surgeon general’s office provoked little debate. And a Democratic amendment to restore it and remove other provisions of the bill was defeated on a party line vote of 29 to 18.

“This bill really is . . . at the center of what I consider to be the [Newt] Gingrich counterrevolution,” said Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.).

The measure is shaping up as a potential vehicle for anti-abortion forces to turn the new Republican majority in Congress into a working majority for their agenda. But Republicans are hardly in lock-step on abortion. Since the end of their 100-day legislative push, GOP lawmakers are finding themselves sharply divided over the abortion issue and related matters and those rifts were on display during Appropriations Committee debate Thursday.

The family planning amendment was passed by a narrow 28-25 margin after a debate that pitted Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.), the amendment’s author, against the chairman of the subcommittee that drafted the bill, John Porter (R-Ill.), an abortion-rights supporter. Seven Republicans opposed the amendment.

*

The family planning program, for which $193 million had been allotted, does not subsidize abortion services but it has been a target of anti-abortion forces because many organizations that receive federal funds for family planning also provide abortion counseling and services. The program was targeted by the Christian Coalition in a recent “action alert” that urged the group’s members to deluge lawmakers with calls demanding abolition of the program.

In the past, legislative attacks on the family planning program have focused on regulating its activities--requiring parental consent for minors, for example, rather than on cutting its funding.

Under the Livingston amendment adopted by the committee, the family planning program would be abolished and its funding would be transferred to two block grants that give states wide discretion in spending federal funds. Livingston said that family planning clinics still could get federal funds by applying to states under those block grants.

But critics said that the switch to block grants would not guarantee that states would continue funding family planning clinics. “If this amendment were to pass [family planning aid] would be terminated completely,” Porter said.

Critics also charged that it was illogical for abortion opponents to try to eliminate family planning grants because those services help women avoid unwanted pregnancies and the need for abortion.

In another victory for conservative abortion opponents, the committee approved an amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds for research on human embryos. In a tie vote, the panel failed to approve an alternative offered by Porter to allow research on embryos so long as they were not expressly produced for experimentation.

Those votes seemed to pave the way for further anti-abortion victories when the panel resumes debate on the funding measure.