A Punt to the Next President

With the presidential campaign neck-and-neck, Congress has raised Nov. 7’s electoral stakes another notch. House Republicans agreed Tuesday to lift a ban on U.S. aid for foreign family planning programs that recommend or provide abortions, but they would punt the decision to the next president by putting it into effect Feb. 15. At least a glass that was empty is half full.

GOP supporters of the “gag rule” say they’re certain that George W. Bush, as president, would reinstate it. Al Gore, on the other hand, would be expected to support choice. The deal, which still has to pass the Senate, sidesteps a veto battle with President Clinton over the $14.9-billion foreign aid bill.

A ban on even discussing abortion--by law, no U.S. aid funds can be used to pay for abortions--was imposed as a Ronald Reagan executive order in 1984 and reversed by Clinton in 1993. Clinton, however, allowed a slightly modified gag rule to become law last year in a political swap.

Family planning assistance ought to be universally available, women should be able to freely insist on birth control and no contraceptive method should ever fail. Lacking perfection, abortion needs to be a choice for women in poor developing nations, as it is in the United States.

A gag rule on family planners overseas may not be an electoral make-or-break issue, but it’s one more sharp difference between the candidates.