Family Planning Legislation Debate

House members debated a provision of H.R. 2707, the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations bill for fiscal year 1992. H.R. 2707 is a $204 million appropriations bill containing a provision that would prohibit the Bush administration from enforcing regulations that would prevent doctors in clinics supported by federal Title X funds from mentioning abortion as an alternative for a pregnant woman. The Supreme Court ruled in June, 1991, that such regulations prohibiting doctors from mentioning abortion in federally funded family planning clinics were legal. The appropriations bill also contained funding for education, health, and labor programs, and was passed on a vote of 353-74. A separate vote on the provision was not taken. Rep. AuCoin called the regulations a “gag rule,” and said the rules intruded upon the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Rep. Hyde responded by saying the bill amounted to only a limitation of federal funds, not a gag rule since the docto close