by Patricia Wilson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush moved on Friday to head off a potentially divisive vote in the Senate to reverse his ban on U.S. funding for international family planning groups that counsel abortion.
Bush planned to issue a presidential memorandum to implement his so-called Mexico City policy instead of using the process of rule-making that can be overturned by Congress, a senior administration official said.
Democrats made a new push this week to reverse Bush's ban on U.S. aid recipients from advocating change in abortion laws in other countries or promoting abortion services in any way, by introducing a resolution under rarely used rules to force a vote in the Senate.
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the assistant minority leader, said Democrats and at least five Republicans would use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to challenge the decision to impose the abortion rules that Bush made three days after he took office. The act allows Congress to rescind executive branch regulations.
Earlier this month, Republicans used the act for the first time to push through a resolution overturning former President Clinton's workplace safety regulations despite fierce objections from Democrats.
“The president believes the most effective way to carry out his Mexico City policy 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.
While Democrats expressed confidence they would have the votes in the 50-50 Senate to repeal Bush's abortion rule, Republicans predicted the effort would be thwarted in the House of Representatives.
“My own view is it has a very slim chance of ever being scheduled for the floor,” said House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas.
BUSH REVIVES POLICY
Former President Ronald Reagan imposed the family planning policy in 1986, Clinton scrapped it when he took office in 1993, and Bush revived it as his first foreign policy act. It is named the Mexico City policy because Reagan made the announcement at a 1984 population conference there.
Anti-abortion groups and their legislative allies in the White House and Congress say the ban is needed to keep the government from transferring U.S. tax dollars to groups pressing for abortion on demand.
Abortion rights advocates say the decision by Bush, an abortion opponent supported in his presidential campaign by religious conservatives, will increase the death rate, boost HIV/AIDS infections and have a “chilling effect” on contraception providers in general.
They also say his policy violates free speech, because it instructs health workers not to advocate change in abortion laws, and interferes in the doctor-patient relationship.
The first step toward repealing a rule under the CRA requires the introduction of a so-called joint resolution of disapproval, followed by the submission of a petition signed by 30 senators to place the resolution on the Senate calendar.
Reid and California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced the resolution on Tuesday and said they had already collected the 30 signatures required to bring it to the Senate floor.
Once on the floor, the resolution would require just 51 votes to pass under CRA rules. Normally, a bill requires at least 60 votes to avert a vote-blocking filibuster.
Five of Bush's Republican Party colleagues in the Senate — Olympia Snowe of Maine, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, Susan Collins of Maine, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island — had agreed to co-sponsor the Democratic resolution.
© 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
