Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303310178
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Both sides predicted a heated battle in Congress.
White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos said Tuesday that Clinton would not include the ban when he sends his fiscal 1994 budget to Congress next week.
For 16 years, the ban, which originated in Congress, has been written into the budget. It bars federally paid Medicaid abortions except when there is a threat to the woman's life.
"It simply goes too far," Stephanopoulos said of the so-called Hyde amendment, named for its sponsor, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. ". . . The president believes that this is the right thing to do . . . and that's why he's not having it in his budget."
The policy shift was welcomed by the National Abortion Rights Action League, which said current law shortchanges poor women.
"The issue here is fairness and equity," said league President Kate Michelman. "It's one of ensuring that we do not have a two-tiered health-care system - one for poor, low-income women and one for those of us with means."
According to the league, 9 percent of women of reproductive age get their medical care though Medicaid.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, predicted that dropping the ban would require taxpayers to pay for hundreds of thousands of elective abortions each year, including many late in pregnancy.
The government paid for 300,000 elective Medicaid abortions a year before the ban was adopted, Johnson said, and 13 states now voluntarily pick up the tab for poor women.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a leading abortion opponent in the House, said Clinton was trying to force taxpayers to get into the "grisly business" of abortion. And Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chided Clinton for making abortion rights such a priority.
"He said . . . he would focus like a laser beam on the economy," Stearns said. "Apparently he believes that taxing all Americans to pay for abortions is one of our nation's top priorities."
Stephanopoulos said the administration had no estimate on what repealing the ban might cost.
Both sides portrayed themselves as the underdog in Congress while claiming to have the support of the American people.
Polls show sharp divisions on the issue. A New York Times-CBS News survey last July, for example, found that 52 percent of Americans opposed using tax dollars to pay for poor women's abortions and 42 percent favored it.
Clinton's action sparked intense speculation about the broader issue of whether his health-care proposals would include abortion as a "basic benefit" for all Americans.
Clinton has taken a series of steps to scrap Reagan-Bush-era restrictions on abortions.
by CNB