THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120395
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 49 lines
The Senate voted Wednesday to maintain a ban on health insurance coverage of abortions for federal employees, as it debated legislation financing the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.
On a 53-45 vote, it retained a provision denying abortion coverage except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the woman is endangered.
The ban, in effect during the Reagan and Bush administrations, was dropped during the first two years of the Clinton administration but was reinstated when Republicans took control of Congress last year.
``Should federal employees be treated the same as other women or should they be singled out, punished and have their rights taken away from them?'' asked Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who moved to strike the provision.
But defenders said pro-abortion rights lawmakers had no right to require taxpayers to subsidize the abortions of federal employees. ``Abortion is not just another health procedure. It's taking the life of an innocent unborn child,'' said Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla.
The abortion ban was part of a bill appropriating $23.5 billion in fiscal 1997 to operate the IRS, the Treasury Department, the White House, the Federal Elections Commission, Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration and other agencies.
The administration issued a statement Wednesday calling it unacceptable, in part because of the abortion language and in part because it cuts funding for the IRS by 6 percent to $6.88 billion. Similar House-passed legislation would impose a 9 percent reduction on the IRS.
Even the milder Senate cut, according to the administration, ``would severely hinder taxpayer services for millions of Americans and result in unacceptable damage to the immediate collection of revenue.''
Republicans, however, said the IRS has bungled a multibillion-dollar project to upgrade its 1960s-era computer system and said they are unwilling to, in effect, throw good money after bad. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
HOW THEY VOTED
A ``yes'' vote is to retain a ban on health insurance coverage of
abortions for federal employees.
John W. Warner, R-Va.Yes
Charles S. Robb, D-Va.No
Jesse A. Helms, R-N.C.Yes
Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C.Yes by CNB