Sticking to its principles.
Planned Parenthood says that rather than accept the Bush  administration's gag rule it will give up federal funding of its  operations.  The gag rule forbids professionals at birth control  clinics from even referring to abortion as an option to a pregnant  woman, much less recommending one.  President Bush has agreed to a  policy which allows physicians but no one else at clinics to discuss  abortion in at least some cases.  In his view, according to White House  officials, this was an admitted attempt to straddle the issue.  Why he  would want to straddle is understandable.  The right wing of his party,  which has always been suspicious of Mr. Bush, is pushing him to uphold  what it regards as the Reagan legacy on this issue.  The original gag  rule, which prevented even physicians from discussing abortion as an  option in almost all cases, was issued in the last presidents's 2nd  term and upheld last year by the Supreme Court.  Give Planned  Parenthood credit for sticking to its principles.  A lot of recipients  of all sorts of federal funds want it both ways, take the money but not  accept federal policy guidelines.  When they find they can't, many  "rise above principle," take the money and adjust policy accordingly.   It is not going to be easy for Planned Parenthood now.  Federal funds  account for a significant portion of the organizations's budgets.   Planned Parenthood of Maryland, for example, gets about $500,000 a year  from the federal government, or about 12-13% of its total budget.  It  will either have to cut back on its services or increase its  fundraising from other sources or charge women more for services--or  all of those things.  This is not the end of the story.  It is  certainly not the end of the political story.  Pat Buchanan said of the  new regulations, "I like the old position, to be quite candid."  Thank  goodness he never won a primary.  George Bush would not have moved even  as far as he hid on the gag rule.  There will be a lot of agreement  with the Buchanan view at the Republican national convention.  We can  only hope that by then the president will be looking to the general  election campaign and a Democratic opponent who will be appealing to  Republican women on this issue.  Perhaps then he will relax the gag  order a little more.
D000028:Abortion, Induced; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D004467:Economics; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005376:Financial Management; D006262:Health; D006282:Health Personnel; D006285:Health Planning; D010820:Physicians; D011057:Politics; D011640:Public Policy
Abortion, Induced; Delivery Of Health Care; Economic Factors; Family Planning; Family Planning Programs; Fertility Control, Postconception; Financial Activities; Funds; Health; Health Personnel; Physicians; Policy; Political Factors