by Judith Davidoff ¦ The Capital Times ¦ 28 May 2008

Family planning providers around the state and country are bracing for expected new rules from the Bush administration that would prohibit them from counseling women on abortion or face the loss of federal funding.

"We think it is absolutely coming," said Chris Taylor, political director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, of the new regulations.

Such a "gag order" would prohibit health care professionals from discussing abortion even if continuing a pregnancy endangered the life of a woman, Taylor says.

She says staff at the national offices of Planned Parenthood have been told by Republican lawmakers to expect the rules. The Wall Street Journal also reported Friday that a coalition of some 70 conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council and the Eagle Forum, are about to present a petition to President Bush urging him to deny federal subsidies to clinics that provide abortions or counsel women about abortions.

"President Bush has defined himself as a pro-life president, and this is definitely something that he should see as part of his legacy," Jessica Echard, executive director of the Eagle Forum, told the paper.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment by The Wall Street Journal.

The petition, which is posted on the Family Research Council's Web site, takes Bush to task for ignoring a "lingering issue that has undermined your administration's consistent commitment to ensure that federal funds deployed for family planning projects not be used to promote abortion as a method of family planning."

The new rules would essentially mimic an international gag order that Bush issued on his second day in office. It prevents overseas organizations that receive U.S. family planning aid from providing any information about abortion or using private money to refer patients for abortion or provide the procedure.

According to a Planned Parenthood fact sheet, the international rule has "shut down family planning clinics in some of the poorest nations in the world, increasing unintended pregnancy and abortion rates, and STI and HIV/AIDS infection."

"What they've done internationally has just been devastating," Taylor said.

Under so-called Title X funding, the federal government gives nearly $3 million a year to Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinics that provide breast and cervical cancer screenings, tests for such conditions as diabetes and high blood pressure, birth control services and supplies and the testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Rules in place for years have prohibited this federal money from being used for abortion services. But the new rule also would force groups like Planned Parenthood, which provide abortion services at some locations, to form separate corporations in order for their family planning arm to continue to receive federal dollars.

Bush's expected new rules would affect 5 million mostly low-income women across the country who receive Title X services, according to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin officials. In Wisconsin, 19 health centers that serve more than 50,000 patients would be affected.

Taylor said such a rule would hurt "every single family planning provider in the state. It puts you between a rock and a hard place."

The patients who would be cut off from basic health care and family prevention services are particularly vulnerable, she adds. "They earn enough not to be eligible for Medicaid but they're poor. They don't have anywhere to go if this program is destroyed by Bush."

If Bush, as expected, follows through with such a rule it would not be the first time a Republican president has tried to restrict access to abortion and birth control through administrative rules, which do not require congressional approval.

President Ronald Reagan did the same thing as he was leaving office 20 years ago, but the rule was put on hold as a court challenge worked its way through the judicial process. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually cleared the rule for implementation some four years later, but President Bill Clinton, once he took office soon thereafter, rescinded the regulation.