House Votes to Ease Abortion Restrictions

WASHINGTON--The House agreed yesterday to allow federally paid abortions for poor women who are victims of rape or incest, reversing nearly a decade of more restrictive votes and inviting a veto from President Bush.

By a 216-206 vote, the House rejected the language it has kept in the law since 1981 and instead endorsed a more liberal provision already passed by the Senate. An effort by conservatives to reverse the vote then failed, 212-207.

Federal aid for abortions, available under Medicaid, is now limited to poor women whose lives have been endangered by a pregnancy.

Yesterday's vote came three months after a Supreme Court ruling giving states greater power to restrict abortions.

Lawmakers and activists who say women have a right to an abortion said the ruling spurred supporters of their position to make their views known to legislators. Opponents agreed.

"The political momentum on this issue is so strong now that if President Bush vetoes this, he'd be making a big mistake," said Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who led the fight for the eased limitations.

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-III.), who has led the anti-abortion fight in the House for years, said, "I couldn't characterize it any other way than as a defeat for the unborn. I was surprised, upset and disappointed."

House members without strong positions "felt they had the Supreme Court to protect them" until the July ruling, said Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), a supporter of tougher restrictions.

Now, however, "It's no longer a vote cast in a vacuum. It's a vote with real consequences," he said.

The provision agreed to by the House would allow Medicaid payments for abortions when the mother's life is in jeopardy or when the pregnancy resulted from a rape or incest that was "promptly" reported to authorities. Since 1981--and as recently as Aug. 2--the House has voted for language limiting federal aid to abortions in cases in which the woman's life was in danger.

Just a year ago, the Senate caved to the restrictive House position on Medicaid abortion financing by a vote of 47-43.

The abortion provision is part of a $156.7 billion measure to finance labor, health and education programs for fiscal 1990, which began Oct. 1. The spending bill, which was approved 364-56, now moves to the Senate.

Bush threatened in August to veto the bill if it contained the more liberal abortion language. Administration officials reiterated that threat yesterday.

The president's senior advisors would recommend a veto if Congress sent him a bill that would pay "for abortions in cases beyond when the life of the mother is endangered," said Alixe Glen, a White House spokesperson.

Just one disagreement remains to be settled between the two chambers before the legislation goes to Bush--whether to accept a Senate proposal to ban federal aid to programs that buy hypodermic needles for intravenous drug users unless the president certifies that the effort helps prevent the spread of AIDS.

The bill also contains more than $1.5 billion for AIDS research and treatment; $4 billion for job-training programs; $1.9 billion for alcohol, drug abuse and mental health programs; $11.7 billion for welfare programs; and $2.1 billion for education for the handicapped.

The vote was the second abortion showdown in the House since the Supreme Court's July 3 decision in the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services case.

On Aug. 2, the chamber voted to dramatically liberalize abortion restrictions in the District of Columbia. That was the first time since 1980 that the chamber had rejected tighter limits.

Medicaid financing for poor women's abortions has been restricted in one way or another since 1977.

In 1979, the last year for which reliable figures are available, there were 72 federally subsidized abortions in the United States, according to the private Alan Guttmacher Institute.

In fiscal 1987--the most recent statistics available--the federal government paid for 322 abortions at a cost of $160,000, the institute says. States financed 189,000 abortions that same year.

There are an estimated 1.6 million abortions performed legally in the United States each year.