Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508070115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The 50-44 vote, with Sen. John Warner, R-Va., voting for the measure and Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., against it, drew an angry response from abortion-rights advocates.
``We have had a meltdown on women's rights,'' said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. ``This is an assault against a woman's right to choose.''
The vote was denounced by one group as a ``discriminatory and unfair'' action against the more than 1 million women who work for the federal government.
Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said the Senate ``opened the door toward making abortions more difficult and dangerous for all women.''
The afternoon vote followed a 52-41 decision rejecting a measure that would have barred funding for any abortions for federal employees unless the mother's life was in danger.
The tide changed after Republican sponsors, led by Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, heeded an appeal by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to add rape and incest as exceptions to the proposed abortion bans.
Conrad told the Senate he could not support the measure without the change because his wife was sexually attacked several years ago eight blocks from the Capitol by ``a vicious rapist with a record as long as your arm.''
It would be ``vicious and monstrous'' Conrad said, to leave no exception for rape and incest. ``Something is radically wrong if someone were to say to my wife, `You carry that baby to term,''' he said.
Democrats failed in an attempt to soften the overall impact of Nickles' successful amendment. The Senate voted 49-45 to reject an amendment that would have permitted abortions deemed ``medically necessary.'' Republicans contended the exception was so broad as to make the ban meaningless.
The votes occurred shortly before the Senate approved an overall measure appropriating $24.9 billion for the Treasury Department, the Postal Service and other agencies. It was the fourth appropriations bill passed by the Senate this year.
Differences between the Senate bill and an earlier-passed House measure must be reconciled before the legislation is submitted for the president's signature.
The House version contains a stricter ban on the use of tax money for abortions for federal employees under their health plans - excepting only cases where abortion would save the mother's life. The prohibition was in effect during most of the Reagan and Bush administrations but was reversed by President Clinton.
``I don't think abortion should be a fringe benefit provided by the government,'' Nickles said, noting that tax dollars pay about 72 percent of the average cost of an abortion under federal workers' health plans.
``This is not an issue about a woman's right to choose,'' he said. ``This is about taxpayer dollars being used to destroy an innocent human life.''
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the amendment ``the first step on a long march to say who controls a woman's reproductive system.''
Several senators said taxpayers' money is not involved because the dollars spent are part of the federal employees' earnings and belong to her, not to taxpayers. They contended that those employees have the right to choose between health plans offering abortion services and those that do not.
by CNB