Gag Rule

AFTER ANOTHER grueling battle over U.S. aid to family planning programs overseas, the House and Senate reached a stalemate before the August recess. This week, conferees will try again to resolve the impasse.If good sense prevails, they will back down from a House-imposed "global gag rule" that has rightly earned the threat of a presidential veto and left two important pieces of the budget -- the State Department authorization and foreign operations appropriation bill -- in limbo, with the new fiscal year only days away.

Two Baltimore defense attorneys have withdrawn requests for a court order that would have barred attorneys and police officers from publicly discussing the case against the two men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. Attorneys for The Baltimore Sun, WBAL-TV and WJZ-TV had opposed the gag order in filings in District Court this week. A hearing on the dispute was scheduled this morning, but late yesterday, Assistant Public Defender Maureen Rowland and defense attorney Jan Bledsoe withdrew their requests.

A cartoon that recently found its way to our office depicts a woman talking to her doctor. "Maria," the physician says. "The tests are positive.""I'm pregnant?" she asks."Maria," counsels the physician, "the blue dog barks at the kite."Only later does a friend explain to Maria that "blue dog" is a code word, referring to her diabetes, which might cause health problems in pregnancy.The conversation is, of course, absurd. Or is it?Under an administration ban, issued in 1988 and upheld by the Supreme Court in May, such a dilemma might well occur at family planning clinics that receive federal funding.

A hearing on a gag order request in the case of the two men accused of killing former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. was postponed yesterday after arrangements had not been made for the defendants to be brought to court. Assistant Public Defender Maureen Rowland and defense attorney Jan Bledsoe had requested a postponement, but District Administrative Judge Keith E. Mathews denied their request. As soon as the two attorneys arrived in the courtroom, they said they wouldn't permit the hearing to proceed without their clients.

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court yesterday nullified the Bush administration's latest attempt to stop staff members at federally funded clinics from talking about abortion -- a "gag rule" that has been in force for just 34 days.The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here immediately ordered the administration to stop enforcing the rule and told it to get public reaction before it tries again to impose the rule on clinics -- a process that could take months.The "gag rule," upheld in an earlier form by the Supreme Court last year, has been under legal attack for years and has been the target of political flak during this year's presidential campaign.

WASHINGTON -- The newest Supreme Court justice, David H. Souter, finally broke his silence on abortion yesterday, putting on public display some doubts about sweeping government rules forbidding doctors at federally funded clinics from even mentioning the subject.Justice Souter joined several of his colleagues in rigorous questioning of a government lawyer who was trying to defend the controversial "gag rule" imposed on family-planning clinics by the Reagan administration in 1988.At one point, the new justice openly wondered whether the government rule had gone beyond what Congress had authorized -- a conclusion that, if embraced by the court, could scuttle the rule altogether.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Bush administration acted illegally in putting out rules barring any mention of abortion to pregnant women by nurses and counselors at federally funded clinics.U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey, in an oral ruling from the bench, told the Department of Health and Human Services that it should have obtained the public's reaction before issuing the latest version of the so-called gag rule.Although President Bush and other administration officials have said repeatedly that the new rules would allow clinic doctors to say anything they want about abortion, most family planning clinics that get federal money seldom have doctors do the counseling of pregnant patients.

The head of Planned Parenthood of Maryland said the organization is joining other national affiliates that will give up federal aid rather than comply with the Bush administration's revised "gag rule" on abortion counseling."

The health care of 100,000 poor women in Maryland will be jeopardized if President Bush delivers on a promise to veto legislation overturning "gag rule" restrictions on family planning clinics supported by federal funds, Baltimore medical experts said today.The veto, expected this week, "amounts very simply to censorship within the doctor's office," according to Dr. David A. Nagey, director of the division of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.If allowed to go into effect, the gag regulations would make it illegal for health professionals in public and private clinics receiving federal funds to provide any information about terminating a pregnancy.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration renewed yesterday its flat ban on any mention of abortion to pregnant poor women by nurses or counselors at federally funded clinics but relaxed slightly its ban on what doctors there could say.The new rules, designed to replace a controversial 1988 "gag rule" that had never gone into effect, kept intact a ban on sending any pregnant patient from a federally funded clinic to an abortion clinic.The only kind of medical referral that could be done with a patient having a problem pregnancy would be to a hospital -- that is, to "a full-service health care provider," as the new rules put it.Doctors at clinics getting federal money were released from a nearly total ban on any discussion of abortion with their patients.

JOHN ASHCROFT wants to know what you're reading. That's but one chilling implication of the USA Patriot Act, which was rushed into law following the Sept. 11 tragedy, ostensibly to expand the tools authorities use to catch spies and terrorists. Combine it with new Bush administration policies obscuring the public's view of government and limiting access to public records and presidential papers, and what emerges is a pattern of assaults on the First Amendment, cloaked in swagger about national security and patriotism.

Upholding gag rule won't make women safe or cut abortions On Wednesday, Congress voted to strike down the Global Democracy Promotion Act, which would have overturned the global gag rule President Bush imposed as one of his first acts in office ("House upholds Bush ban on aid to abortion groups," May 17). In exchange for U.S. family planning assistance, the gag rule requires foreign non-governmental organizations to withhold information about legal abortion and where to obtain safe abortion services.

Hours after President Bush signed his debut executive order yesterday reinstating the so-called "global gag rule" regarding abortion, Gov. Parris N. Glendening urged a group of abortion rights activists to stay vigilant in the face of the new administration. Both Bush's order, which denies funding to international groups that use their own money to support abortion, and last night's pro-abortion rights rally at the State House coincided with the 28th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in the United States.

IN A COUNTRY that professes a bedrock belief in free speech, gag rules deserve a bad name.But some members of Congress think other countries are fair game for restrictions on basic democratic principles such as free speech -- particularly if those countries want to debate matters important to women.Under the pretense of "pro-life" sentiments, these members of Congress are deaf to the reality that open and frank discussions of those issues could save many lives.Best estimates indicate that unsafe abortions kill some 70,000 women a year in poor countries around the world.

ABORTION OPPONENTS have been unsuccessful in reversing the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in this country. But they have had better results in their attempts to hamper family planning programs in poor countries.Today, another attempt to impose a "global gag rule" on these programs is expected to reach the floor of the House of Representatives. Members of the Maryland delegation ought to see this for what it is -- a misguided attempt to curb abortions that would instead deprive poor families of contraceptives and increase maternal and child deaths.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS who claim to be ardently opposed to abortions instead seem intent on increasing them worldwide. That would be the effect of a gag rule they seek to impose on U.S. aid to family planning programs.Two years ago, their no-compromise approach helped shut down the federal government, even while they insisted their opposition was to abortion, not to the family planning programs that decrease demand for abortions. This year they are working their mischief again, holding up accord on a foreign aid bill.

ABORTION OPPONENTS have been unsuccessful in reversing the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in this country. But they have had better results in their attempts to hamper family planning programs in poor countries.Today, another attempt to impose a "global gag rule" on these programs is expected to reach the floor of the House of Representatives. Members of the Maryland delegation ought to see this for what it is -- a misguided attempt to curb abortions that would instead deprive poor families of contraceptives and increase maternal and child deaths.

AFTER ANOTHER grueling battle over U.S. aid to family planning programs overseas, the House and Senate reached a stalemate before the August recess. This week, conferees will try again to resolve the impasse.If good sense prevails, they will back down from a House-imposed "global gag rule" that has rightly earned the threat of a presidential veto and left two important pieces of the budget -- the State Department authorization and foreign operations appropriation bill -- in limbo, with the new fiscal year only days away.

Something is out of kilter when the chairman of the planning and zoning commission in the town of Hampstead says that public comment isn't "required" at commission meetings. Just because residents have been rambunctious in recent meetings is no reason to eliminate public input on matters before the commission. Far from discouraging broad discussion of planning matters, town officials would be better off to encourage more of it.Isn't the commission a "public" body acting on behalf of the townspeople of Hampstead?