Senate Drops Move to Fund Rape Abortion
WASHINGTON — The Senate, bowing to a veto threat and the House’s will, today retreated from its position that the federal Medicaid program should fund abortions for poor victims of rape and incest.
The Senate voted 47 to 43 to drop an amendment that would have liberalized the current policy of federal funding only when abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life.
In July, the Senate voted 73 to 19 to expand Medicaid to pay for abortions in promptly reported cases of rape or incest. States would have had the option of retaining the current, more limited policy.
The abortion controversy had been holding up a massive $140-billion spending bill meant to keep the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education in business during fiscal 1989, which begins Oct. 1.
The bill contains money for college loans, disadvantaged children, job training and AIDS research and education, among other things.
President Reagan has repeatedly said he would veto the entire Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill if it came to him with the Senate abortion provision. The latest threat came in a letter Sept. 7 to congressional leaders.
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