PHA-Exchange> Bush to Back Bill on AIDS and Abortion

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It is amazing, isn't it?

April 29, 2003

BUSH TO BACK BILL ON AIDS AND ABORTION

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON, April 28 - Ignoring objections from his conservative base,
President Bush is to make a Rose Garden speech on Tuesday in support of a
$15 billion bill to fight AIDS internationally that will direct some money
to groups that promote abortion.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Henry J. Hyde, Republican of Illinois,
has been the subject of intense negotiations between the White House and
both parties on Capitol Hill. Now it is drawing fire from conservatives who
say Mr. Bush's support is merely an attempt to win favor with moderate swing
voters in 2004.

"This is about politics," Ken Connor, president of the anti-abortion Family
Research Council, said. "The AIDS lobby will be very happy, the homosexual
lobby will be very happy, the condom crowd will be happy, the Planned
Parenthood folks will be happy. That's not the president's base."

The bill has its genesis in the State of the Union address in January, when
Mr. Bush proposed an initiative to spend $15 billion over the next five
years to fight AIDS around the world, a tripling of financing. The money was
to be spent on AIDS prevention and treatment programs in 12 African nations,
as well as in Haiti and Guyana. It was applauded by both Republicans and
Democrats and quick enactment was expected.

Instead, Mr. Bush's proposal immediately stalled in partisan arguments.
Conservatives said the AIDS money should not go to international groups that
promote abortion because the so-called Mexico City rule - named for the
place that Ronald Reagan announced it - already bars foreign aid to such
groups. Democrats responded that conservatives were trying to broaden the
Mexico City rule.

Eventually Mr. Bush chose what his aides described as a compromise, which
was to allow an international organization to receive American AIDS money as
long as its abortion and family planning programs were conducted and
financed separately. It is unclear how such a policy would be enforced in 14
nations around the world.

But that compromise is not included in Mr. Hyde's bill, which makes no
mention of the Mexico City rule or abortion. Mr. Hyde, a longtime opponent
of abortion, has said that it is more important to him that his AIDS bill
passes and that including mention of abortion will set Democrats against it.
Administration officials say they will nonetheless press their policy of
keeping AIDS money from going directly to family planning activities.

The bill also includes language from Democrats who added "use of condoms" as
one of the healthy lifestyles the AIDS initiative is meant to promote. That,
too, has angered conservatives, who favor abstinence.

AIDS groups generally praised the legislation and Mr. Bush's initiative. "I
think he's taking a very pragmatic approach to what has to be done," said
Kate Carr, president of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. She is to be a guest
in the Rose Garden on Tuesday.