Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993 TAG: 9309150153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
However, a battle is guaranteed when the measure hits the Senate floor, where both sides predicted there would be a close vote, possibly next week.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee approved, 24-11, a bill aimed at curbing violence at abortion clinics and ensuring access for doctors and women. Critics say there is a danger it will infringe on protesters' First Amendment rights.
A subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee first stripped House-passed language continuing a ban on Medicaid abortions. The bill then went to the full panel, where abortion opponents didn't even try to restore the ban when it became clear the votes weren't there.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the chairman, gently urged Rep. Don Nickles, R-Okla., an abortion opponent, to retreat, noting the issue would only be refought on the Senate floor. The overall bill passed on a voice vote.
The Medicaid ban is known as the Hyde amendment, after Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, who has attached it for years to the bill that pays for Medicaid.
With a Democrat in the White House this year, abortion-rights forces thought they could keep the Hyde amendment off the bill. But they lost by a surprisingly large margin in the House earlier this summer.
If the funding bill were to pass the Senate without the Hyde amendment, a House-Senate negotiating team would have to work out differences. Now there are exceptions to the ban when rape, incest or the woman's life is at stake.
Congressional women, meanwhile, called a news conference to say coverage of abortion must be included in the White House health care plan, along with equal treatment for women's health issues, to get their support.
by CNB