EXECUTIVE MEMO
Abortion Restrictions Enacted
bsent the hubbub that usually accompanies major abortion legislation, President Clinton late last year signed into law sweeping restrictions on the ability of federal employees and their family members to seek abortions.
The Treasury, Postal Service and General Government appropriations measure included a rider that prevents health benefit plans from offering abortion coverage beyond cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's life. The version Clinton signed was more permissive than the one passed by the House in July, which left no room for those exceptions.
Also, on Nov. 30, Clinton signed a Defense appropriations bill that puts restrictions on abortions at military hospitals overseas.
An abortion rights advocate says Clinton had originally planned to veto any legislation that included the abortion restrictions-which could affect a million women of childbearing age-but he believed that he had no choice but to sign the Treasury bill to end the first federal shutdown last November.
Abortion-rights groups, the advocate added, think it's unlikely that the new measures will be rolled back now.
Restricting abortion coverage for federal workers has been a priority for anti-abortion groups since policies enacted under the Reagan Administration banning such coverage were overturned shortly after Clinton took office. Ironically, the climax of their struggle received little attention from activists and the media alike, overshadowed by the budget battle and by a congressional ban on partial-birth abortions that Clinton has pledged to veto.
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