Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Abortion counseling alive Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 16:16:30 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Abortion counseling alive \SH 'Gag' regulation illegal, court rules \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS The Bush administration illegally imposed a regulation restricting abortion counseling by federally funded family planning clinics and therefore may not enforce it, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit brought joy to pro-choice activists who had opposed the revised rule that allowed only doctors at the clinics to discuss abortion. The appeals court said the Department of Health and Human Services adopted the modified rule without giving the public adequate opportunity to challenge it. The agency changed the 1988 rule at the direction of President Bush to exempt doctors from the so-called "gag rule" in what administration critics said was a fraudulent compromise motivated by politics. Left unclear after yesterday's ruling is whether the administration could enforce the broader gag rule, barring even doctors from discussing abortion. That gag rule would affect some 4,000 clinics that serve about 3.7 million women a year. Pro-choice advocates said a lame-duck administration would not have time to re-implement the regulation. Mr. Clinton has said that if elected, he would throw out the gag rule. "If Clinton wins, we'll see a lot more of this - liberal judges engaging in social engineering," said Douglas Johnson, head of the National Right to Life Committee. Judge Patricia Wald, in her opinion for the court panel that included Judges Harry T. Edwards and Abner Mikva, said, "The law seems clear that when an agency adopts a new construction of an old rule that repudiates or substantially amends the effect of the previous rule . . . the agency" must give the public a chance to object. Meanwhile, family planning clinics can continue to receive federal funding without curtailing abortion counseling for patients. The Bush administration began enforcing the regulations Oct. 1. The next day, the House fell 10 votes short of overriding Mr. Bush's veto of legislation that would have overturned the gag rule. Marcia Greenberger, head of the National Women's Law Center, said, "This ruling is a reprieve for low-income women from government censorship." Both the Senate and the House passed legislation last year and again this year to reverse the government's policy. But the legislation died both times when the House failed to override Mr. Bush's veto, including last month's vote. The Supreme Court ruled last year that cutting off federal funds to clinics for abortion counseling does not violate constitutional protection of free speech and does not interfere with a doctor's right to give a patient proper care. Yesterday's ruling does not bear directly on a woman's constitutional right to abortion, established by the high court in 1973 and upheld in modified form by the justices in June. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM