Bush Maneuvers to Protect Anti-Abortion Rule

President Bush will issue a new order imposing abortion restrictions on U.S. foreign aid, hoping to scuttle a bid by Democrats to overturn one of his first acts as president, administration officials said Friday.

Advisors said the new presidential memorandum will mirror the action Bush took Jan. 22, his third day in office, but will use a different legal avenue to protect it from congressional intervention.

“The president has determined the most effective way to have his Mexico City policy carried out is through the issuance of a presidential memorandum, as opposed to rule-making at a government agency,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a telephone interview. “It gets the same thing done. The substance is exactly the same.”

Reinstating the Mexico City policy restrictions that his father and President Reagan had instituted before him, Bush acted in January to impose new rules reversing the Clinton administration’s position on unrestricted family-planning aid overseas. The Mexico City policy is so named because it was announced by Reagan at a 1984 population conference there.

Bush barred U.S. money to international groups that use their own money to support abortion--either through performing surgery, counseling on abortion as a family-planning option or lobbying foreign governments on abortion policy.

Five Senate Republicans and two Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday to overturn Bush’s action, using a 1996 law that permits the House and Senate to pass legislation rejecting regulations issued by federal departments and agencies. Republicans this month used the same law to overturn Clinton administration rules aimed at protecting workers against workplace injuries.

Bush intends to issue a presidential memorandum to implement his policy without using the rule-making process exposed to the 1996 law, said an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The White House released a letter from the United States Agency for International Development’s procurement director to the agency’s acting general counsel, spelling out Bush’s plans to issue a memorandum and his decision to cancel the initial order.

When Bush issued his initial order, he told the USAID: “It is my conviction that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions or advocate or actively promote abortion either here or abroad.” It was his first workday in the White House and the 28th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Abortion-rights supporters condemned Bush’s action in January, calling it an act of war on women’s reproductive rights. Bush said during the presidential campaign he opposed abortion.

Current law bans the use of U.S. funds for any abortions in foreign countries. Former Presidents Reagan and Bush further banned U.S. aid to international groups that use their own money to support abortion, directly or indirectly.

President Clinton repealed the policy, which abortion-rights advocates call “the global gag rule,” two days after he entered office in 1993. It went through several subsequent versions as the Democratic president reached different compromises with congressional Republicans.