
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995                   TAG: 9506290089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HOUSE BIDS TO CUT AID FOR ABORTION GROUPS

The House voted Wednesday to cut off aid to organizations that perform legal or illegal abortions abroad or lobby to change other countries' abortion laws. Opponents said the restriction would end U.S. support for family planning around the world.

The provision, passed 243-187 as an amendment to a $12 billion foreign aid bill, echoes a section of previous legislation President Clinton has said he would veto. But it now is part of a foreign aid appropriations bill Republicans have been trying to make veto-proof by holding on to enough fragile Democratic support to discourage or override a rejection by the White House.

All Virginia Democrats voted against the amendment, and all Virginia Republicans except Tom Davis of Fairfax County voted for it. Davis joined Democrats in opposing the amendment.

Rep. Jan Meyers, R-Kan., said its inclusion will force her to vote against the entire bill, which provides funding for foreign aid and export support.

Meyers, among 36 Republicans who opposed the amendment, failed in an effort to reduce its impact by limiting it to denial of funding to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities unless it discontinues activities in China.

She described the other proposals put forward by Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., as a ``cruel and harsh amendment'' that would deny health and family planning services to the world's poorest women.

by CNB