Senate Votes to End Bush Policy Blocking Foreign Abortions

Ignoring a veto threat, the Senate voted Wednesday to end the Bush administration’s policy prohibiting family planning assistance to health centers abroad that promote or perform abortions.

An amendment to lift the ban was included in a $27-billion bill authorizing State Department spending and foreign assistance programs. It was approved by voice vote after an amendment to set aside the proposal was defeated, 53 to 43.

A vote on the overall bill is likely today.

The version of the bill under consideration in the House includes no such provision and House negotiators can be expected to strenuously oppose it when the two versions are reconciled.

The abortion policy debate dates back to the Reagan administration, with the Senate traditionally opposing the ban and the House supporting it.

If the provision survives the House-Senate conference, President Bush would veto the entire bill, the Office of Management and Budget said Wednesday.

The amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), said she hoped the vote in the Republican-led Senate “will give momentum to those in both parties in the House who find this gag rule repugnant.”

Boxer said in an interview that she would like to meet with Bush to persuade him that changing the policy “would save women’s lives, would foster better health care and will stop thousands of illegal abortions.”

Opponents of the ban say it denies urgently needed money to organizations offering a wide array of health services, often in impoverished areas. They say it denies not only abortion rights that American women have, but also free-speech rights.

Supporters of the ban say the many Americans who oppose abortion don’t want their money to even indirectly promote the procedure.

“Why would we take something so controversial, so counter to so many Americans’ fundamental beliefs, fundamental thoughts and say to the American taxpayers: ‘We’re going to use your dollars to do this’?” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

The bill consists of $9 billion in funding for State Department operations, $17 billion in foreign assistance programs and $1 million for Bush’s proposed Millennium Challenge Account, which would increase foreign aid to countries that are fighting corruption and reforming their economies.